All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others - George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945)

Animal Farm is a classic on power, corruption and greed. Having removed the uncaring authoritarian human species, the animals declared their freedom and established Animalism in Animal Farm with the mantra of “Four legs good, two legs bad”.

For a while Animal Farm flourished with communalism and unity. But cracks in the leadership resulted in the banishment of one of the two leaders and the elevation of the victor as “Our Beloved” leader, who over time become dictatorial and less and less beloved by the masses.

He bestowed upon himself as “First Class Animal”, decorated himself with dynastic titles, surrounded himself with fierce guards and everything else was about himself with excesses. And of course with himself more equal than the others. It was leadership unquestioned: “I am always right”. Dictatorship has come around in one big circle for the less informed.

Silence of The Lamb

Sounds like us? Behave like us? Is it us? Animal Farm draws startling pararell to our Malaysian political experience. Having removed the colonial masters, the people declared their Merdeka and established Malaysia. The mantra of nationalism propelled us towards an era of prosperity. But cracks in our unity tarnished us with May 13 and the scale of equality continued to be elusive. Leader banished leader, resulting in further split within the community. Abuse of power, nepotism, cronyism, corruption and lack of transparency in wealth accumulation became the lyrics of the Kopitiam politics. Today, the mantra is back to reformasi/change away from a regime that propagates the horrifying hypocrisy of power and control based on the pretext of justice and stability for the people.

Men are the actors of politics, some more active than others. The shape and direction of their activities earn them leadership, great or disgrace. Yet, that is an over simplified version, as we also need to relate its interaction with social forces, nationalism, religion beliefs, economic wants and civil liberties. It was not Hitler who made himself a demi-god; it was the masses who pushed him on that pedestal.

Most Malaysians are Election Day democrats. They exercise their rights of parliamentary democracy with the ballot box once every five years. Thereafter, they let the elected representatives act out in Parliament/state assembly while they resigned to read all about it in the media.

“To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men”, said Ella Wilcox.

Interest groups

Apathy be said, others are not mere armchair critics. To them, inaction is not an option in a democratic society. They group themselves to pursue their common goals and expectations as well as to safeguard a common interest. These lobbyists are what is termed “the pressure groups”.

Thus we have the Bar Council of lawyers championing for rule of law and justice, teacher’s unions voicing out for the teaching fraternity, the employee unions, the business circles, the farmers and religious bodies etc.

These groups voice their concerns either directly to the legislature when interests are non-partisan or through political parties. Interest groupings play an integral part in our pursuit of democratic ideals, liberty, social justice and equality.

An active citizenry of politics is a beacon of democracy in motion.

A two-coalition party system?

While component parties within the BN coalition government are, in theory supposed to check and balance the excesses and abuses of each other, more often than not the scale of justice depends on numerical weight.

At the federal level, Umno has been leveled with continued dominance over most policies. In Sarawak Barisan National, PBB and the chief minister have not escaped such a perception.

It has been argued that the success of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat was due to its claim to check nepotism, cronyism, corruption and inefficient governance that eat away the resource of the nation like white ants.

A “two-coalition party system” of parliamentary democracy may provide an effective alternative government-in-waiting. A strong government evolves from having a formidable opposition. The two-legged would want to replace the four-legged in the political landscape.

Each coalition party subjectively believes that “when right keep it right, when wrong make it right”. When politically and morally wrong, make it right. Political parties and their political animals should dwell on the might of the electorate’s right, rather than the right of their political might.

Expiry date for political deadwood

To reduce the inevitable oligarchic tendencies of leaders in government, checks and balances in political parties and organisations should be further enhanced, bearing in mind the gratitude tendency of the led towards their leaders, and the general immobility and passivity of the masses which creates the perception of the technical indispensability of leadership.

At the political party level, there is the loud drumming against party leaders who over-stayed their welcome, depriving the party of energetic freshness. The most common excuse given is: “we have no right leader to replace me, and without me my party will face a political death”. Such diehards are indeed the death of their parties.

Malaysians have a de facto PM who is not even an elected parliamentarian, and two parliamentarians who are PM-in-waiting. Has our constitutionally installed PM been lost in transition? A solution which one may wish to consider is to have a fixed time frame for leadership roles such as prime minister, chief minister, party president, etc, before they turn into political deadwoods. A use-by date, if you will. The same be said of all leadership in organisations.

Beyond the ballot box

The destiny of nations lies ultimately in the hands of the people. If the overwhelming majority are determined to have reforms and are prepared to make the necessary effort and sacrifice to achieve that objective through the ballot box or other legitimate process, there is no power, authoritarian regime included, that can suppress them. Expressions are also available in Parliament, the press, cyber media and through opinion polls.

Activate our citizenry watchful eyes. Be proactive watchmen over the government, our politicians and dare to act to safeguard our rights. In the ballot box, all animals are equal in the eyes of our constitution.

Have you been thinking? Time to act. Make everyday your ballot box. Who dares win back the control of Animal Farm !

GOH LENG CHUA is a retired lawyer based in Kuching.