How to behave like gov't-in-waiting

comment We vote because we hope to elect a representative who will best serve and fulfil our aspirations.

In Penanti, voters have two choices - to vote for the only candidate backed by a political party and who is likely to be appointed deputy chief minister (1) of Penang; or to vote for any one of the independents who does not have the backing of party machinery but may represent a cause we share.

In mature democracies, independent candidates can and do win elections. Usually, these individuals win because they are very strong local personalities or their cause is passionately shared by the electorate. They go on to be very effective representatives, sometimes playing an important role in the advancement of the cause they espouse.

To date, Malaysia’s list of independent candidates have not met with such success. This is because very few of them espouse a cause.

In Penanti, the same tired rhetoric abounds. This has to do with wanting to “serve the people”. But seldom do these candidates - the PKR representative included - say in what way they will serve.

PKR claims that this is a proxy war being waged by Barisan Nasional (BN); that, through one or all of the independent candidates, the objective is to diminish votes for PKR. Then the BN will turn around and say that support for the opposition has finally abated.

The BN is already saying that Malaysians are not all that concerned about the issues that PKR has brought up: Perak, party-hopping and 1Malaysia.

If voter turnout is low or if one of the independents garners a lot of votes, PKR will have itself to blame. This is because it has not taken this opportunity to explain what it will do to improve and build our institutions. It has also not revealed what sort of economic plan it has in mind to bring about a more equitable society.

There are issues that this mainly Malay and rural-based community would like addressed. If the NEP is to be dismantled in stages by the BN and Pakatan Rakyat is advocating a means-tested and merit-based affirmative action policy as its replacement, would Penanti be the best place to test the waters?

What about revealing how the top 0.1 percent of Malaysia owns the bulk of the country’s wealth? Then there is our great income disparity and how future economic plans must narrow the gap. Locals, particularly the working-class voter in Penanti, will want to know about job security.

We have a huge immigrant population, mostly floating about undocumented and without rights, and competing with locals for low level jobs. What is PKR or Pakatan’s policy going to be?

Pakatan has said that it has a shadow cabinet but thus far it is just that, an announcement. How about using this by-election to explain the role and functions of a shadow cabinet? That it is not merely a public relations gimmick but something integral to efficient government.

The BN may rubbish the idea of a shadow cabinet but Pakatan has a responsibility at federal level to be an effective opposition. It must oppose to make sure we have better laws and if we pass bad ones, it must tell the electorate why these laws are bad.

Of course, PKR and its partners PAS and the DAP, understand the ground better. But every by-election is an opportunity to reach out to a wider audience.

If Pakatan is serious about being a government-in-waiting, it must begin to behave like one. This means identifying the BN’s policy weaknesses and advocating better solutions.

‘Raise substantive issues’

In Penanti, like the rest of Penang and the northern region, the main issue is security: job security in a transitional economy (from export-driven to the sustainable model) and physical security with the rise in crime.

Most of the voters may not even realise that global economic changes are affecting their lives but they feel it. That feeling is what will drive them to the polling booths.

Many are worried about making ends meet in an economy where their purchasing power is in decline. The more educated voter is wondering why the stock market is doing relatively well but they are not.

The Malaysian journalist, particularly if working for a particular newspaper, must be wondering why a fresh graduate earns RM24,000 a year when the former CEO takes home RM6 million per annum. This is 250 times the annual earnings of a graduate employee and 500 times that of a blue-collar worker in the same firm.

The BN has decided to sit out this by-election but participates vicariously through the mainstream press. Here is a chance for Pakatan to raise substantive issues like income disparity and environmental degradation, and take the BN to task.

How will the Knowledge Economy, for example, benefit the semi-rural electorate? The real-estate driven model where social housing and governmental responsibilities have been passed on to developers have also created problems like low quality low-cost housing, high prices and a speculative property market. What is Pakatan’s solution to this problem?

In short, the BN has developed Malaysia but a lot more can still be done. While PKR dredges up the more sensational aspects of BN’s weaknesses, it has not taken up the opportunity to provide thought leadership on a variety of topics. Luckily, this is not the same in Selangor where the PKR has strengthened its credibility by the way it is managing the water and toll issues.

It was not so long ago that one opposition leader said that Penang needs innovative leadership. PKR must not forget why Gerakan lost so badly in Penang. It too was a non-sectarian party and, in its early days, had given space to thinkers.

One of the reasons why the party did so badly, apart from its association with Umno, was that it forgot the advice of its founder-leader Dr Lim Chong Eu (right) .

It was Lim who advocated innovative thinking and a strong dose of pragmatism. Both were integral values underlying Penang’s success in the recent past.

PKR must now demonstrate its ability to be pragmatic in Penang. The Perak incident is already etched in our minds. We know we need judicial reform and more transparency in government.

What we need to know now is whether Pakatan and its weakest but most promising link - PKR - can deliver those reforms.

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NEIL KHOR (PhD) (Cantab) is the co-author of ‘Non-Sectarian Politics in Malaysia: The Case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat’. He blogs here .