What is the value of free and fair elections?
What is the value of free and fair elections?
To form a legitimate government informed by the will of the people, of course. That, at least, is the textbook answer.
Except that the will of the people is never really served via elections, be it free and fair or otherwise. Elections merely provide a mandate for a particular political organization to administer a country’s affairs. How they manage that mandate is largely beyond the control of the people. What the democratic system does is merely provide a window of opportunity for the people to overturn that mandate at regular intervals, which is when you will hear demands for a free and fair election once again.
Are free and fair elections really the answer to all that ails us as a nation?
To quote Zaid Ibrahim: “Democracy only works if people use their heads, and not their hearts”. I think this country’s tragedy is that we have become a mass of adrenaline-rushed hearts, with very little head to match. Opportunists and conservatives crave for such a climate to wield their influence on the people. The outcome of a free and fair election will be neither free nor fair when people cast their votes solely based on emotion and perception.
Ibrahim Ali is not just an individual. Ibrahim Ali is a state of mind, one fueled by exploiting the emotions of a sizable Malay-conservative demography. This state of mind exists because civil society has failed to provide an alternative liberal approach to Malay supremacy.
The individual that is Ibrahim Ali is possibly the smartest Malay politician in this country. He understands the democratic process and knows how to exploit it. He pushes all the right buttons. Arrest him for sedition? Should you fault the messenger - how hypocritical and dangerously familiar of us civilized people to shoot the messenger - or question the worrisome “Why are there hundreds and thousands of willing listeners in the first place?”
Ibrahim Ali is the manifestation of our failure. We created him. And our answer to our sins? To march to demand for free and fair elections. Are we really that naïve? This has to be the laziest, most unimaginative and ill-conceived response to the matter, and serves only to play right into the hands of Perkasa.
Is there no attempt form liberal Malays to define what Malay supremacy is in the context of building compassionate, competitive, and incorruptible individuals? Has there been no attempt by liberal Malays to start an NGO with the purpose of rallying young Malays to the proper ideals of nation building and framing their success in a globalised world that gives little attention to one’s race?
So while we take the easy option and walk a few miles, Ibrahim Ali is hard at work building a robust network that defines Malay supremacy in a conservative framework. Are you sure you really want free and fair elections? Are you prepared for the possible outcome, given that free and fair elections also provide greater freedom for the propagation of the state of mind that is Ibrahim Ali?
What, really, are you marching for?
