Despite losing Tuesday’s by-election in the Kelantan state seat of Manek Urai, the BN is jubilant. It seems the Malay ground has lurched towards Umno yet again.

In this case, Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim hit the nail on the head when he said that perception is everything. Manek Urai is one of the many ‘reversals’ that the BN is orchestrating to demonstrate that voters are returning its fold.

najib and barisan nasional But like the toll rebate, liberalisation of bumiputera quotas in selected services sectors, and even some hint at a merit-based scholarship system, these are short-term and temporary measures. There is no guarantee that the government will not go back on its word when it regains ‘support’ from the people.

Perhaps that is a cynical view but the BN has a long track-record of ‘flip-flopping’ as Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself has come to realise. This has to do with our bilateral relations with Singapore, and more recently, the government’s decision to revert to the vernacular as a medium of instruction when teaching maths and science in primary school and Bahasa Malaysia at secondary level.

Some of these measures are geared to win back mass support and usually benefits people across the board like the toll rebates. Other measures are more strategic in nature. Rolling back ethnic quotas without really overhauling the entire economic system is only cosmetic change as noted by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

It does not cancel out the rentier economy – kick-backs based on position and income generated without value-added work. In the meantime, the rest of us have to pay exorbitant taxes and levies on our cars to keep those Approved Permit-holders in style. Our taxi drivers curse and swear because licences are held by a few.

Up against entrenched interests

The optimist may say that Najib is trying to undo the policies of his predecessors but that these interests are too entrenched. Pakatan Rakyat state governments too are feeling the brunt of these entrenched interests, whether they are in the civil service or business circles.

But if one puts one’s ear to the ground, there is a different beat that can be heard. In Selangor, 60 percent felt that the Selangor state government is on the right track. They may not be very happy with the economic progress of the state but they realise that the state government is up against monumental obstacles.

In their immediate vicinities, they know that what was once a karaoke-pleasure garden for the locally entrenched so-called ‘government’ supporters is now slowly reverting to its original

purpose of being community-based service station. But when it comes to security, the police, which most Malaysians think are in pockets of federal politicians, are still less than sterling.

The desire to build and live in gated communities is a form of ‘voting’ and an indictment on the Royal Malaysian Police. It is time the home minister implements the recommendations of its own royal commission and drag the police force into the 21st century.

Language switch - let schools decide

As for macro policies, the BN must handle education with more creativity and tactfully. Toll rebates can only go so far but the future of voters and their children go a greater distance.

In the bad old days, most Malaysians would put their mother-tongue ahead of their economic future. Today, with globalisation and opportunities to use vernacular languages in a wider field, that fear of the loss of vernacular-based identities have somewhat diminished.

This is why both MCA and Gerakan are back-paddling on the teaching of maths and science issue. They now want English as the medium of instruction for those subjects at secondary level. This is a compromise of sorts. They want to appease the Chinese educationist lobby and the urban voters at the same time.

But a longer lasting government decision to liberalise education and shift resources from urban to rural areas can be achieved if we allowed parents more say in the type of education for their children.

Why not leave it up to individual PTAs (parents and teachers associations) and the school concerned to decide whether or not to teach those subjects in English? If more resources are required, the PTA and school concerned can raise the money privately to get better teachers and equipment.

But schools that choose to do so must remember that they cannot expect the government

to completely pay for their choices. In the jargon of the business world, they must be proactive in finding the best possible future for their children.

Where does this leave poorer neighbourhoods and schools? They will have much more governmental resources to get teachers that can teach properly. It is important that schools in poorer communities are properly equipped and the only way to achieve this is by channelling more resources and spending it meaningfully.

We now have a minister in-charge of KPI (key performance indicators), surely he can draw up KPIs for this two-tier system.

Manek Urai not definitive battle

In short, the BN cannot afford to make populist decisions just to shore up the popularity of the prime minister. If it is true that we want to be a high-income country and that we need to leap-frog into a service-oriented economy, we need more just a shift in policies. Instead, we need long-term measures that will bring out the best in us all.

In that sense, Manek Urai is not that significant in the battle for Malaysia. In fact, no by-election from now till the next general election will figure much when changing the minds of Malaysians. It will be the big picture that will decide the way we vote in the future.

To my mind, the BN and Pakatan must start making clear their plans for our economic and educational futures.

To date, both sides are equally unimaginative, short-sighted and myopic. But there is hope, in the form of Malaysians like Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim of Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE), who are articulate and concerned about the future of our children.

We now need a visionary to fill the vacuum of political leadership.

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