WHEN DEMOCRACY LOSES CREDIBILITY

Democracy not just as a form of government, but a mode of associated living and essentially, an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men. Political democracy cannot last unless it is based on social democracy evidenced in liberty, equality, and fraternity – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, author of the Indian Constitution.

[1] Democracy, as hypocritically practiced in de jure nation states, is threatened when misled, mistaken and misinformed ploticians and politicians try to change and challenge the narrative with rent-seeking organs of state that have long forgotten the precious will of the people in an effort to destroy peace, partnership, progress and prosperity.

[2] Providentially, Malaysian youth is tuning and turning to social media to become well-informed, and well-versed in the nuances of the stranglehold of the political will. “Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man,” observed Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

[3] In law and government, de jure (Latin: 'from law') describes practices that are officially recognized by (man-made) laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with de facto ('from established fact'), which describes situations that exist in reality, even if not formally recognized.

[4] For example, the Orang Asli of peninsular Malaysia enjoy de facto standing encapsulated in Article 8(5)(c) Federal Constitution and status as does Sharia Law enunciated in Article 121(1A) Federal Constitution. Article 145 (3) Federal Constitution explains the defacto versus de jure jurisdictions that prohibits the Attorney General from discontinuing proceedings in Native and Sharia Courts. This is a powerful fact of Malaysian jurisprudence that is sadly deployed or employed to challenge political will that demeans the will of the people.

[5] The buffer zone between de jure and de facto is furnished with Natural Law, otherwise known as adat, furtherburnishedwith Sharia jurisprudence. Some European mystics dabbling in philosophy and political science committed so many mistakes and snafus that enlightened and awakened Asians are now able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Lying is one thing. But stretching a material fact to absurdity and stupidity is a wholly different story. We really have nothing much to learn from Westminster except the English language and cricket.

[6] National history should not lock horns with national hysteria when social democracy is being defined in a constitutional matrix, unapologetically, and unreservedly, under the Federal Constitution seldom touted as the supreme law of the land. YAB Rakyat must demand answers, solutions and remedies from the promissory note of the supreme law of the land, and the executors of that promissory note. We have to be proactive and not reactive.

[7] Democracy loses its credibility when they are anti-democratic elements allowed in suspect, runaway, amok, chaotic governance evident in vote banks, indifference to eradicating corruption, cronyism, self-interests by politicians, GLCs, GLICs, nepotism, greed, a pliant judiciary afraid of demanding obeisance to the rule of law prescribed by the separation of powers, and total apathy when the unqualified win elections.

[8] WHO is ready, willing and able to restructure our broken value system? These originalists are not in positions of power or in impoverished levels of obedience (read: the civil service). The remedy, answer and solution repose with the career voter. The power and authority of the voters are never encouraged to any level of understanding by the elected representatives – MPs and Aduns. Are they afraid of educating the masses about their unused power and authority as voters?

[9] The decline in democratic principles could mean that the Federal Constitution has shallow roots despite showcasing artificially bright and healthy-looking shoots that betray the truth and befuddle reality. Why isn’t the Federal Constitution taught in secondary schools and private tertiary institutions? Why the emphasis on Bahasa Malaysia and not the Federal Constitution? Is lingua franca of greater importance than the doctrines and tenets of democracy?

[10] The only time ‘parliamentary democracy’ is touted is when it is weaponized under Section 124(B) of the Penal Code to go after political activists and dissidents who speak unfavorably of a government that fails to measure up despite election manifestos and promises. That’s stifling the freedom of thought which generally offends democracy.

[11] It is amply evident that the democracy enshrined in the Federal Constitution was not planted in fertile soil way back when the Reid Commission decided to write up a manifesto for “Kerajaan” which actually meant “the state of having a Raja.” Western mores and traditions crept into it which the Madani government refuses to trim, tweak to take back our lost traditions and customs (adat).

[12] Malaysians may need to decolonize their minds to rethink democracy which is an European concept that gained traction for the first time in ancient Greece circa 507 B.C. as conceptualized by a Greek leader named Cleisthenes who called it demokratia (rule by thepeople) which for two hundred years pandered only to male citizens. Loss of social capital is inevitable when discrimination was born without constitutional midwives.

[13] Democracy was introduced to Malaya on 1 December 1951 when the first election occurred at the municipal level in George Town, Penang. On 27 July 1955 the first nationwide general election was held to elect representatives to the Federal Legislative Council, with the Alliance Party winning 51 out of 52 seats. Today, democracy is threatening to be an ailment requiring professional diagnosis and cure. One medical doctor skewed it within 22 years when he was warded in a Malaysian political hospital.

[14] Before European contact (roughly pre-1511), the system of government in Malaya was characterized by a hierarchical, feudal, and maritime-oriented structure, heavily influenced by Indian cultural models and later shaped by the arrival of Islam. The political landscape was dominated by several key phases, evolving from early maritime city-states to the influential Melaka Sultanate. Kerajaan, literally as we know it, is a permanent fix that must someday become a political fixture.

[15] Research is scarce whether early Malayans were forced to accept European models of governance, but democracy began gaining a foothold if not a stranglehold as the Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese influences came and went. Will Malaysian governance survive when and if we Malaysians decolonized our minds? That is the burning question.

[16] Has democracy worked in Malaya and later Malaysia when the will of the people (demokratia) of Sabah and Sarawak is still subject to debate and conjecture with crystal clear and covert signals of continuity when radical challenge and change should take charge with all the fervour and engagement expected from the sovereign will of the people. Rupture came in the form of reform, and nobody is buying it anymore.

[17] Experts say that democracy is a system of governance based on popular sovereignty, equality, and protection of rights. Key problems include the tyranny of the majority, political polarization, misinformation, the influence of money, and voter apathy. Additional challenges involve shrinking spaces for civil society, systemic inequality, and difficulties in implementing inclusive decision-making.

[18] 9 May 2018 witnessed 24-carat and dyed-in-the-wool demokratia when the will of the people defenestrated the Barisan Nasional coalition. Has the will of the people been strengthened enough to rule out democracy, dictatorship and demagoguery in the hope and prayer that we have found something – anything – that works for everyone without getting utopian or egalitarian in the process?

[19] Truth be told Malaysian democracy has been demeaned, desecrated and destabilized by political forces that depict and portray munafik or make-believe system of governance that insults the will of the people. Once the will of the people is betrayed, demokratia ceases to function, and is passionately headed for the trash bins of history. Democracy’s rootedness, as Eric Fromm the German psychoanalyst explained, is totally absent – completely missing from the neo-political equation and summation.

[20] Malaysians should get busy invoking the Federal Constitution’s Article 182(7) (Special Court) as an avenue of restoration and reform for a pre-1511 system of Kerajaan which may very well save the nation owing to the unique reverence and regard YAB Rakyat has for the Rulers since time immemorial, far, far away from the din and bustle of electingrepresentatives to form a western-style form of government with the expensive hypocrisy of representing the will of the people.