Bawani In Ayer Kuning True Grit

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“The feisty young lady soldiers on, viewing the practice of law as her arena to champion human rights as well as to fight for the workers, farmers and address injustice in society.”
- Malaysiakini report, 2016
Recently in the Mara bullying case, its chairperson Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki questioned how future leaders are expected to be formed from its learning institutions if they have bad characters.
"Mara is a field for us to produce leaders. How can we give birth to leaders who are shallow in their intellect and polluted by their manners and moral behaviour?” he asked.
This is rich considering what Asyraf had said during his various tenures in the political ecosystem, the most egregious of which was when he said the then BN was committed to making Malaysia an Islamic state.
Contrast this with PSM’s Ayer Kuning candidate Bawani KS who took an anti-racism oath, promising not to play race politics to gain votes while on the campaign trail.
She also said her party’s efforts will focus on social class struggles rather than racial matters.
I do not know what exactly is going on in Mara which is supposed to give birth to the leaders Malaysia needs.
But what I do know is that if Mara were to use young leaders like Bawani as an example of the conduct future leaders should emulate, the young minds in Mara would not be prone to bully boy tactics they witness in mainstream politics.
If you think about it, both this coalition government and Perikatan Nasional do not want their children to grow up or emulate someone like Bawani.
Why? Because she is a threat to the established order of things.
PSM, the natural inheritor of the long-destroyed Malaysian mainstream left, is a constant reminder of the failure of Malay uber alles politics and the parasites that latch onto it promising progressive reform.
The two ustaz from Umno and PN who are competing in this by-election would never take such an oath as she did.
Their bread and butter is racial and religious politics and like US President Donald Trump and his acolytes, they do not care about the bread-and-butter issues of their constituents.
If you look at this rationally, Bawani is the only candidate who is offering something different to the voters of Ayer Kuning.
BN and PN are offering the status quo which is meagre handouts and the narcotising effects of race and religion.
The problem with politics in Malaysia and everywhere else is that candidates like Bawani - who exemplify the kind of personality needed in a political ecosystem to enact change - are rejected by the tribalism that defines mainstream politics.
Of course, voters being who they are, are not going to look at this rationally which means that PSM’s chances are slim because not only do voters tend to vote against their self-interests, but they have been conditioned to think that their self-interests are the interest of mainstream political parties through race and religion.
While the mainstream political coalitions are busy finding easily identifiable “enemies”, what PSM identifies are deficiencies in the system and misguided policies that essentially encourage the working-class Malay base to vote against their long-term interests and the non-Malay base to enable a system which ultimately disenfranchises them.
Muda’s support
Muda has said that it will give ground support for PSM and this is a good thing. To put it mildly, PSM’s messaging is terrible.
Muda has demonstrated that for a young party, it has garnered a percentage of votes that PSM never managed to do.
Their messaging, especially using social media, does seem to resonate.
PSM could benefit in Ayer Kuning from the exposure that Muda offers using social media to highlight issues that PSM has been attempting to garner support for, but would be drowned out because of the battle between the two ustaz.
All about the money?
Keep in mind the federal government has been pouring in aid for the disenfranchised in Ayer Kuning.
PSM understands this type of politics and how it leads to corrupt politicians. As another great PSM leader Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj said about Santa Claus politics - "I asked them, 'do you want me to be clean or not?
"You want your YB to be Santa Claus, a feudal lord giving away money... But at the same time, you want your YB to be clean. It doesn't jive," he said, adding that the role of politicians goes beyond just providing cash handouts or immediate assistance.
This is why when a DAP minister in the coalition government plays a card which for decades DAP has decried as outright bribery, it is Bawani who has to remind voters that - “You cannot blindly say that it wasn’t your agenda (and) you didn’t plan it. It’s very direct - you’re blatantly giving bribes to the people.”
We have to keep in mind what working-class philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote - “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
PSM is also facing PAS and as former PSM head honcho Nasir Hashim said when PSM went up against PAS years back - “We were literally on our own and got help from NGO friends. We were not prepared to fight PAS because they are not our principal enemy and our actions were construed as being weak.”
Non-Malay votes
While Umno is hoping that the browbeaten DAP would canvass for the non-Malay vote and whatever the MCA and MIC could scrounge up, the choice of candidates demonstrates that Umno and the PAS-led PN are going to use religion to detract from real-world problems the voters of Ayer Kuning face.
Umno is of course hoping that the non-Malay community will view PAS as the bigger threat even though both are the same kind of threat.
Umno Youth leader Dr Akmal Saleh is as virulent or more so than most PAS leaders and has demonstrated that he thinks the non-Malay coalition partners in the unity government should be seen but not heard.
And keep in mind that Malays who do reject Umno, are in fact also rejecting Madani so there is a protest vote that could happen, just not the kind that would strengthen the crumbling democratic infrastructures of this country.
So not only is the question can PSM attract the disaffected non-Malay vote but can it peel off Malay votes from those people dissatisfied with what mainstream politics is offering?
This is a steep hill. Non-Malay participation in elections is traditionally low and PSM has never been the choice of the non-Malay supposedly progressive community.
People often talk of how this country is going down the theocratic and kleptocratic rabbit hole.
But there have always been options to slow or stall this dissent. They were just never considered for tribal reasons.
PSM may very well lose this election. However, what Bawani and PSM are demonstrating and will continue to demonstrate is true grit. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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