44 - The Nation Must Embrace A New Stage In Its Development

Summary

Elections are on the way, and an endless stream of promises will be forthcoming. The good thing is that Malaysians are such a politically savvy people – and this is paradoxically a sad reflection on the state of politics in the country's recent history – that they will in most cases be able to tell a sincere promise from a blatant lie. But that ability is not good enough if the country is to mature further.

No doubt, the country now has a proper opposition; a government that knows it has to respond to rising demands for reform; and a civil society in the form of the Bersih movement for clean and fair elections, which has brought a sense of growing empowerment to the general public.

But for real change to come, the sense of being accountable among politicians, and what that accountability can mean for their personal career if the law is properly followed, must be sharpened. And the people who can hurry that process along are voters and social activists, not only other politicians.

Being politically perceptive is one thing, but being nevertheless passive despite that has, over the decades, spawned a psyche of skepticism, if not cynicism, among Malaysians. This passiveness in the ruled encouraged arrogance and ignorance in the ruler.

Thus, this unhappy balance is most effectively unhinged by the ruled. The rulers may tweak but only the ruled can reset the system. Putting constructive demands on politicians becomes the responsibility of the citizen. Being lied to is not all right; being manipulated is not all right.

What is at stake here is the future dignity, not only of the individual citizen but also of the country itself. The nation-building process is far from over, and if there is anything that other cases throughout the world have taught us about nation-building, it is that it occurs in stages. This means that one has to expect stages of radical change to be followed by periods of conservative politics, and vice versa.

This staggered process starts with the physical integrity of a country. Thus, securing and defining borders is the initial priority, taking place alongside the wild need to decide what is local and what is alien, and to understand what belongs within and what needs to be expunged.