Submitted by webmaster on Mon, 2010-10-11 09:41
October 11, 2010
The political tsunami in the 2008 general election is a real acid test to all the component parties of the ruling coalition. The unprecedented electoral setback provides us with food for thought, particularly the effectiveness and relevance of these parties in the current political landscape.
Crux of the matter does not seem to reside on the race-based partisan structure alone as the political tsunami hit not only the raced-based component parties but across the board. The blaming game within the coalition does not bode well if no in-depth reflection and self-remedy on the prevailing weaknesses were instituted by the respective component parties as well as BN as a whole.
From the perspective of non-Malays, BN is conspicuously and overwhelmingly dominated by UMNO. No doubt UMNO being the mainstay of the coalition would undeniably be playing the role of the bigger brother, nonetheless any pervasive perception of its over-dominance would inevitably render the other component parties’ roles insignificant, if not irrelevant. In meeting the ever-escalating demands and aspirations of the people, the perceived ineffectiveness of the component parties would only further alienate the communities they claim to represent.
Over the years, it has been the common perception that government policies largely remain in the grip of UMNO. This has been clearly manifested time and again by the major policy announcements made by UMNO ministers at the UMNO party functions, without any perceived participation of the component parties at all.
Of course, such conspicuous display of power dominance does create grouses from among the disgruntled coalition partners. However the smaller coalition partners too should have their fair share of blame as they have knowingly or unknowingly developed a sense of self-marginalization in their psyche. This is evident in many political statements made or even sometimes resolutions endorsed at the Party General Assembly that call for the government to address certain issues or concerns. This would then put the parties’ effectiveness subservient to the ruling coalition in question which wields the government machinery.
On the policy fronts, the pressure from UMNO has always been for its partners in explaining, if not justifying the government policies whenever they come under fire in the non-Malay communities. Nonetheless, little did they understand the real scenario and predicament arising on the ground especially within the non-Malay social fabric.
By and large, political discourse within the party ranks or for the public has so far been taking a back seat in most, if not among all coalition partners.How did that happen? Such tacit paradigm shift could be attributable to what some party veterans termed as value decadence within the party. Party insiders had been overly engrossed in either the fund raising programs or apolitical initiatives. Instead of explaining or justifying the policies, many may sing chorus along with the critics of policies within the community. After all, the party network could hardly furnish them with much information on the subject.
The perceived lethargy of the party grassroots became more pronounced after the 2008 political tsunami when the opposition front managed to wrest control of 5 states. Many party cadres or grassroots leaders surviving on the Administrations’ political resources had all the sudden found themselves in the lurch with all revenue life-lines severed. This had made them fall easy prey to certain party leaders who pandered to money politics. Now that it is no longer uncommon to have grassroots leaders, particularly party delegates who would exercise their voting rights in the party election, on the payroll of aspiring party leaders who are set to wrest control of the party leadership. Under such circumstances, their allegiance to the paymaster would almost certainly ride rough-shod over the political cause and interest of the Party and community it seeks to represent. The personal pay checks are sufficient to convert them overnight into local lieutenantsmerely serving the interests of their paymasters in the party. The orthodoxy of serving the party and the people would no longer appear on their radar screen.
In areas where the coalition partners were once known for their local service had also found themselves caught in a newfound dilemma. The traditional petition-writing style of constituency service and municipality-linked services are all now outmoded. The municipal officials have to serve their new political masters from Pakatan Rakyat after the change of guards in March 2008. Moreover the dependents of petition-writing services have dwindled as the electorate grows more sophisticated. Hence, these grassroots leaders may appear to be akin to the sales personnel without products to sell.
While the terminology of political education seems to sound increasingly remote, if not totally alien, to many partisans nowadays, partisan politics is getting intensely self-interest driven in the current context. To the young generation, they made no attempt to deny that “ideology-driven” is now discarded as a by-product of the past Cold War era, while “value-driven” or “mission-driven” partisan politics is likely to sink into the same oblivion in no time.
As the election draws closer, the party bosses of the coalition would always set their sights on the statistics linked to the sizes of electorate and party membership. However, the bloated party membership in any one constituency can no longer offer anybody with comfort, much less would it grant anybody an assurance of delivering sufficient voters’ support to win the seat.
Though it is unfair to label the entire membership in any locality as phantom members, it would be an absolute naivety to believe that the lawfully registered members could ever make their presence felt in the local community. Many registered local branches might never be heard of by the local folks. To the party insiders who know the tricks of the game, this is one of the usual gimmicks deployed to beef up the number of party delegates who are expected to lend support to the leaders who mastermind the formation and registration of such local branches.
As the saying goes: “Politics is a number game”, any shrewd and crafty politician can always out-manoeuvre his fellow comrade in any power tussle within the party through manipulating the branches and delegates, but it is near impossible for him to hoodwink the entire electorate by means of gutter politics.
October 11, 2010
The political tsunami in the 2008 general election is a real acid test to all the component parties of the ruling coalition. The unprecedented electoral setback provides us with food for thought, particularly the effectiveness and relevance of these parties in the current political landscape.
Crux of the matter does not seem to reside on the race-based partisan structure alone as the political tsunami hit not only the raced-based component parties but across the board. The blaming game within the coalition does not bode well if no in-depth reflection and self-remedy on the prevailing weaknesses were instituted by the respective component parties as well as BN as a whole.
From the perspective of non-Malays, BN is conspicuously and overwhelmingly dominated by UMNO. No doubt UMNO being the mainstay of the coalition would undeniably be playing the role of the bigger brother, nonetheless any pervasive perception of its over-dominance would inevitably render the other component parties’ roles insignificant, if not irrelevant. In meeting the ever-escalating demands and aspirations of the people, the perceived ineffectiveness of the component parties would only further alienate the communities they claim to represent.
Over the years, it has been the common perception that government policies largely remain in the grip of UMNO. This has been clearly manifested time and again by the major policy announcements made by UMNO ministers at the UMNO party functions, without any perceived participation of the component parties at all.
Of course, such conspicuous display of power dominance does create grouses from among the disgruntled coalition partners. However the smaller coalition partners too should have their fair share of blame as they have knowingly or unknowingly developed a sense of self-marginalization in their psyche. This is evident in many political statements made or even sometimes resolutions endorsed at the Party General Assembly that call for the government to address certain issues or concerns. This would then put the parties’ effectiveness subservient to the ruling coalition in question which wields the government machinery.
On the policy fronts, the pressure from UMNO has always been for its partners in explaining, if not justifying the government policies whenever they come under fire in the non-Malay communities. Nonetheless, little did they understand the real scenario and predicament arising on the ground especially within the non-Malay social fabric.
By and large, political discourse within the party ranks or for the public has so far been taking a back seat in most, if not among all coalition partners.How did that happen? Such tacit paradigm shift could be attributable to what some party veterans termed as value decadence within the party. Party insiders had been overly engrossed in either the fund raising programs or apolitical initiatives. Instead of explaining or justifying the policies, many may sing chorus along with the critics of policies within the community. After all, the party network could hardly furnish them with much information on the subject.
The perceived lethargy of the party grassroots became more pronounced after the 2008 political tsunami when the opposition front managed to wrest control of 5 states. Many party cadres or grassroots leaders surviving on the Administrations’ political resources had all the sudden found themselves in the lurch with all revenue life-lines severed. This had made them fall easy prey to certain party leaders who pandered to money politics. Now that it is no longer uncommon to have grassroots leaders, particularly party delegates who would exercise their voting rights in the party election, on the payroll of aspiring party leaders who are set to wrest control of the party leadership. Under such circumstances, their allegiance to the paymaster would almost certainly ride rough-shod over the political cause and interest of the Party and community it seeks to represent. The personal pay checks are sufficient to convert them overnight into local lieutenantsmerely serving the interests of their paymasters in the party. The orthodoxy of serving the party and the people would no longer appear on their radar screen.
In areas where the coalition partners were once known for their local service had also found themselves caught in a newfound dilemma. The traditional petition-writing style of constituency service and municipality-linked services are all now outmoded. The municipal officials have to serve their new political masters from Pakatan Rakyat after the change of guards in March 2008. Moreover the dependents of petition-writing services have dwindled as the electorate grows more sophisticated. Hence, these grassroots leaders may appear to be akin to the sales personnel without products to sell.
While the terminology of political education seems to sound increasingly remote, if not totally alien, to many partisans nowadays, partisan politics is getting intensely self-interest driven in the current context. To the young generation, they made no attempt to deny that “ideology-driven” is now discarded as a by-product of the past Cold War era, while “value-driven” or “mission-driven” partisan politics is likely to sink into the same oblivion in no time.
As the election draws closer, the party bosses of the coalition would always set their sights on the statistics linked to the sizes of electorate and party membership. However, the bloated party membership in any one constituency can no longer offer anybody with comfort, much less would it grant anybody an assurance of delivering sufficient voters’ support to win the seat.
Though it is unfair to label the entire membership in any locality as phantom members, it would be an absolute naivety to believe that the lawfully registered members could ever make their presence felt in the local community. Many registered local branches might never be heard of by the local folks. To the party insiders who know the tricks of the game, this is one of the usual gimmicks deployed to beef up the number of party delegates who are expected to lend support to the leaders who mastermind the formation and registration of such local branches.
As the saying goes: “Politics is a number game”, any shrewd and crafty politician can always out-manoeuvre his fellow comrade in any power tussle within the party through manipulating the branches and delegates, but it is near impossible for him to hoodwink the entire electorate by means of gutter politics.
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