COMMENT | When fear becomes politics' most valuable currency

“Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from conservatives to anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." - George Orwell

COMMENT | Another election is upon us, and the political carnival has rolled into Malacca, bringing with it the familiar parade of grandstanding, glad-handing, choreographed humility and generosity, extravagant promises (and excuses) and rehearsed performances of public service.

Social media will provide its own sideshow, amplifying the theatrics, stoking outrage, manufacturing controversies and ensuring that no provocation goes unnoticed.

One of the main attractions at previous carnivals has been the house of horrors, with DAP and PAS taking turns to conjure up apocalyptic visions of what awaits should the other gain power.

One invokes the spectre of multiculturalism and religious freedoms being imperilled, while the other warns of Malay and Islamic interests being subverted.

The irony, of course, is that DAP and PAS are arguably each other's most valuable electoral assets.

There is a peculiar symbiosis between these two political adversaries. Each presents itself as the antidote to the threat posed by the other. But while their ideologies may be diametrically opposed, their electoral survival could well be intertwined.

Wile E Coyote and Road Runner

One cannot help but wonder what these political leaders would do if the other were no longer around to serve as a convenient bogeyman. It brings to mind Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner.

For the purpose of illustration, let us cast PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang in the role of Wile E Coyote. No disrespect intended, but the comparison is difficult to resist, given his inexhaustible tenacity in pursuing DAP, an obsession that appears to leave little room for anything else, much like the cartoon character.

What would the coyote do if it finally managed to catch and devour its nemesis? Would it suffer an existential crisis when DAP's familiar “beep beep” no longer echoed through the canyon?

Would life suddenly lose its purpose without a Road Runner to chase, an elaborate contraption to devise or a mail-order anvil from Acme Corporation to drop?

On a slight tangent, Wile E Coyote might be the world's first documented case of mail-order shopping addiction, long before the advent of the internet and online shopping platforms.

Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the Road Runner, his purchases more often than not turned out to be defective, misfired or inflicted more damage on him than on his intended target.

A lesson for Hadi

Perhaps there is a lesson in this for Hadi too. However, the fear arrangement is particularly convenient when neither party has an abundance of achievements to flaunt.

DAP can no longer rest on its grand reformist credentials. Four years in government have passed, but many of its promises remain unfulfilled, while detractors accuse the party of having compromised on the principles it once championed.

PAS, meanwhile, has a constricted political repertoire, with the bulk of its messaging revolving around the perceived threat posed by so-called liberal agendas to the position of the Malays and Islam.

Therefore, fear becomes a substitute for persuasion, and demonisation an alternative to competence.

Umno has long traded in this political currency. But with the stakes rising, it appears to have upped the ante, joining PAS in playing the communal card.

With Hadi playing Wile E Coyote and DAP the Road Runner, Umno could well be the Tasmanian Devil in this Looney Tunes production, spinning itself into a political frenzy and leaving a trail of dust and debris as it attempts to recapture its former glory.

Instead of offering voters a vision of what the future could look like, these parties would rather frighten them with what it might become under their adversaries. It is the politics of dystopia, degenerating into a contest between competing communal anxieties, with the national conversation becoming its principal casualty.

This brand of fearmongering silences discussion of issues that should take centre stage.

Questions of corruption, abuse of power, institutional accountability and good governance (unless it concerns political rivals or those threatening to upend the status quo) are relegated to the sidelines.

Debates over equitable policies, the cost of living, stagnant wages, employment prospects and economic opportunities are eclipsed.

When politics is reduced to a choice between imagined catastrophes, voters are deprived of the opportunity to scrutinise what those seeking their mandate have delivered.

As long as voters believe the alternative is worse, unfulfilled promises, questionable compromises and governance shortcomings can be rationalised as the lesser evil.

And so voters find themselves in a familiar predicament, compelled to rally behind their respective political camps not because they are persuaded by what these parties offer, but because they dread what the alternative might bring.

Celestial union?

Perhaps the situation can only be remedied if the seemingly preposterous - which, in political parlance, often turns out to be plausible - happens for a third time. DAP and PAS finding themselves in another alliance.

Since 1998, Malaysian politics has served up alliances that would once have been dismissed as political heresy. DAP and PAS have sat at the same table. DAP later joined forces with Dr Mahathir Mohamad to unseat Umno, only to eventually find itself sharing a cabinet with the same party it had spent decades opposing and accusing of every conceivable transgression under the sun.

After all, DAP has a rocket while PAS has a moon. One could be forgiven for thinking that the two were ordained for a celestial union.

Political differences are legitimate. But there is a fundamental distinction between defending one's principles and beliefs and cultivating an entire community's fear of another.

In true Orwellian fashion, fear is a much easier commodity to sell than good governance. But at what cost to the nation?

There is perhaps another lesson to be drawn from the recent US midterm election, where voters delivered a resounding rebuke to Donald Trump and his coterie.

While the results reflected a range of grievances, they also offered a reminder that there are limits to how far politics built on fear, hostility and division can take a leader.

Malaysia has far more pressing concerns than deciding which political party poses the greater existential threat to one section of its citizenry, regardless of whether they are deemed first-, second- or third-class citizens.

These are not exclusively Malay problems, Chinese problems, Indian problems, Muslim problems or non-Muslim problems. They are Malaysian problems, and they demand Malaysian solutions from Malaysian leaders.

“To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.” - George Orwell

RK ANAND is a member of the Malaysiakini team.

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