Breakfast tables are exciting places for debate. Having just awoken from a restful lumber, your mind is fresh, and made fresher still by the consumption of food early in the day. Its easy to think, easier still to argue and a very engaging time to get involved.
Over breakfast this morning, the topic of discussion was Malaysian politics. On one side we had Azahan, a good friend and a staunch supporter of the political opposition in Malaysia. Or maybe, it may be more accurate to label him an opposer of the ruling Barisan Nasional.
On the other side, we had me. A critic of all sides, but a believer in "practical politics" - whatever gets the job done works for me. As you can imagine, the discussion soon veered into the ever-so-touchy issue of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the state of the Malaysian judiciary.
Azahan argued that the ISA has undermined the legitimacy of the Malaysian judiciary. To some extent, he's right: after all, the ISA is an extra-judiciary tool and, in theory, it exists to balance the need for national security without the high burden-of-proof courts normally demand. With the legitimacy of the judiciary removed, the future of the country is at risk. If you can't trust the courts, or rely on the judiciary for protection and fair play, the nation will cease to function.
I argued, that the "future" Azahan was speaking about is already here. The ISA has been around for decades. The judiciary has been bypassed for years on issues labeled "national security". In reality, the ISA has become a political tool serving political agendas; overly vocal opposition politicians are particularly wary. Yet, Malaysia is relatively peaceful, secure and properous. We are not an Indonesia with its massive racial unrest. We are not a Singapore that has recently been found out as an economic one-trick pony. We haven't had the massive political violence suffered by the Philippines. Malaysia has been hailed a model Muslim country, and is arguably the jewel of ASEAN.
Azahan: the "bleak future" that you were speaking of is happening right now. Where are the problems you anticipated? Why hasn't the country "broken down" yet?
Its a paradox. The leadership of the Malaysian government has been called a dictatorship by some. You would imagine that a dictatorship would lead to turmoil and national unrest at a large scale. See Nigeria. See Burma. See parts of drug-imbued Latin America. But you don't see that here in Malaysia. Could it be that the government isn't nearly as bad? Could it be that Malaysia has been fortunate enough to find that necessary balance that has eluded so many others?
Leave a comment