Malacca General Election a double test of Malaysia’s resilience as a democracy and the integrity of political parties
The Malacca General Election is a double test of Malaysia’s resilience as a democracy and the consistency and integrity of political parties.
A new political landscape is struggling to be born and that is why what is unheard-of in Malaysian politics, such as the confidence-supply-reform (CSR) memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and the four Pakatan Harapan leaders, Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng, Mohamad Sabu and Wilfred Madius Tangau on Sept. 13 has happened.
Malaysian political parties and Malaysians are still struggling to find an equilibrium in this new political landscape and this will take some time - months may be years.
For instance, the nation’s founding fathers never envisaged a political scenario where no one political party can exercise political hegemony or even command a majority of the seats in Parliament to form a government, and Malaysia may be entering an era where political parties must learn to co-operate with each other for the nation’s sake as no single party can command a majority in Parliament.
This calls for a genuine coalition form of politics, not the so-called coalition government which had been seen in Malaysia in the first six decades of nationhood, requiring a new set of thinking and conception of what is politically acceptable and achievable in multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia.
The Malacca state general election will have far-reaching implications not only for the state but also for the nation.
The Malacca general election should not be held, as the worry of Malaccans and Malaysians whether Malacca general election could spark a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, as happened with the Sabah state general election in September last year causing the longest Covid-19 wave in the world and which had not been surmounted, is most pertinent and legitimate.
However, if general election in Malacca is unavoidable, it must be a clean and honest general election, which will be a credit to the four great civilisations which meet in Malaysia in confluence.
It has been said that to achieve victory in Malacca, we must tactically join with anyone that can give Pakatan Harapan victory.
If given the choice of victory by teaming with kleptocrats, opportunists and crooks or defeat by being consistent with political principles and integrity, I will opt for the latter.
It is for this reason that I am of the view that the four former State Assemblymen who had caused the Malacca state general election should not be fielded as Pakatan Harapan candidates in the Malacca state general election .