Malaysia's declaration of state of emergency a blame game: Sin Chew Daily contributor
KUALA LUMPUR (SIN CHEW DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – After the announcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO), Malaysians were shocked at the follow up declaration of the Emergency by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (Agong) on the advice of the Prime Minister.
I was teaching a Zoom class when my son burst in the room saying, “Dad they just declared an Emergency in Malaysia!”
I asked my students for permission to pause while I checked that information, and lo and behold, it was verified.
Needless to say, my lecture after that was less than enthusiastic. Why teach the future architects about the structure of knowledge and the importance of critical thinking when an Emergency declaration would not care two cents about that ability?
After a full day of telephone conversations and discussions, I had to stop after Asar Prayers to reflect on the events of the day.
There was a call from a media news portal and I gave my academic answer to all the journalist’s questions. After the interview, I sat in deep thought and asked myself how did we get to this terrible state of affairs that will irrevocably damage the very spirit of democracy and dignity of all citizenry?
Undoubtedly this was an historic occasion when Malaysia officially failed as a nation. Whose fault is it or was it?
WhatsApp is abound with the popular narrative that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is going to lose his shirt because of Umno’s imminent pull out and when Umno lawmaker Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz finally put his money where his mouth was, that was the final straw.
The popular narrative continued that in order to stop the Sarawak election and the General Election with this loss of majority, the PM had sought Agong for emergency powers to stay in power.
Many are also wondering why the Agong agreed when he had denied this request before.
I have always stood by in my writing that emergency powers should not be declared because of the pandemic in order to stop elections because I am a strong believer that elections do not cause or worsen the pandemic if done correctly.
For me, the failure of the Sabah Election that caused the second wave was due to mismanagement by the election agency, law enforcement and the politicians themselves in not following strict standards of procedure (SOP).
If the authorities had come down hard on all the politicians regardless of their affiliation, then there would not have a second wave.
Furthermore, New Zealand and the US had their elections done in a most professional manner following the SOP.
So, why now has Agong agreed to the Emergency Declaration? I would like to discuss three other parties who were at fault which are not being popularly mentioned in the mainstream narrative.
Firstly, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, former premier Mahathir Mohamad and Chief Minister Shafie Apdal could not sit together to come to an agreement on who should be the PM for the opposition.
Dr Mahathir still wants to be a major player even though his Pejuang does not have an inspiring army of lawmakers.
Mr Shafie is making his bid for power and he too does not command any strong presence. Mr Anwar is the strongest in the numbers game but he always come off short.
Malaysians are clearly angry at the opposition for not being able to put the country first. Mr Mahathir should follow his own advice and pergi balik-lah (Go back)!
He was trusted twice by the people and he disappointed the people in both instances. No way is anybody going to trust him again.
I believe that Malaysia should have a PM from Sabah or Sarawak and Mr Anwar should back down even though he has the majority support. If Mr Shafie was named, then all the parties will be united in an opposition front.
When PM Muhyiddin no longer commands the majority, at least the Agong can see a united alternative but he did not and so Datuk Seri Muhyiddin can govern indefinitely even if he loses the simple majority.
Thus, Mr Anwar, Dr Mahathir and Mr Shafie are at fault for not putting a united front.
The second party at fault is Umno. Their recently completed assembly saw a convincing rejection of PN and yet the warlords in Umno waited and waited.
Why? Everyone knows that Umno was only Sabre rattling and not serious because the party wants the court cases to be dropped and their warlords rewarded with projects and titles that promise wealth and power.
The party waited too long and PM Muhyiddin struck a death blow which will render Umno a pariah party of beggar MPs and leaders. Had Umno struck hard and fast, PN would have drowned without any way to be saved.
But Umno waited a day too long. Why? It was greedy for the shadow of a bigger bone in the water. Umno can also pergi balik-lah. Game over.
The third party to be at fault is strangely enough …us Malaysians. When news broke that Mr Anwar was discussing with some Umno MPs, Malaysians reacted with disgust.
This reaction drove the No Umno-DAP combo mantra and perpetuated the idea of a Chinese against Malays narrative.
Now, every democracy-loving Malaysian have lost the nation as the Emergency has ripped whatever dignity left simply because Malaysians cannot think strategically but prefers idealism to pragmatic reality. Think about it.
The horse has bolted and the rice has become porridge.
We, as a nation, are in a complete constitutional mess. There is no longer any dignity left when Parliament, as the people’s cheque and balance, is no longer functioning.
Before the emergency, Malaysians were already wary of the institutions of governance that had very little credibility and integrity. Now, those institutions are given a blank cheque by desperado politicians.
The irony is, we as Malaysian citizens and our opposition representatives are also the major culprit in this unfolding drama in the early hours of the new year.
Thus, 2021 may be known as the year where another ‘pariah’ nation is born to the world.
Professor Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is a professor at a local university. The paper is a member of The Straits Times media partner Asia News Network, an alliance of 23 news media titles.
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