Where in the democratic world do you get to hear a political
party that secures only a minority vote-count and practices gerrymandering gets to form
the government? It appears to be only in Malaysia of course. In the recently concluded thirteenth General Elections, the long-serving
National Front (Barisan Nasional)
secured only 48 percent of total votes whereas the opposition coalition
political front Citizensā Coalition (Pakatan
Rakyat) secured 52 percent of the total votes.
But the National Front got to form the in-coming government.
Now where in the world do you witness such ādemocraticā practices? Yet the
world did not bat an eyelid to proclaim that Malaysia is a āmoderateā democracy. The world leaders who quickly sent their congratulatory
messages to the in-coming Prime Minister and his National Front party are by
doing so sending the wrong message to their respective democratic nations.
Even the two elections' watchdog groups ā the Institute for Democracy and Economic
Affairs Malaysia and the Centre for Public Policy Studies, Malaysia, that were
sanctioned by the Malaysian Elections Commission to observe the voting have
issued an official statement declaring that the General Elections was āonly
partially free and not fairā. In the context of democracy, āpartially free and not fairā
simply means that the elections was not free and was unfair.
Therefore on what
basis did the leaders of the so-called democratic nations recognize,
congratulate and endorse their continued cooperation with an incoming
government that threw the very democratic principles out to sea?
While
the United States of America has been championing
greater democracy in the world, giving hope to the rising tides of
liberty and
human rights the world over, it too immediately welcomed the 'not free
and not fair' victory, knowing too well that there were irregularities
in the general elections of
Malaysia given the latterās widespread gerrymandering practices and
questionable campainging period and money politics.
Likewise even the European Union flawed in not only
congratulating Najib but also in welcoming the hope of continuing its business
interest in the country. Who in the world cannot decipher that Najib and his rightist
propagator, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir, are nurturing a race based
political front? Who does not know that the post election period is punctuated with
racistā messages through the political party owned media?
Yet there are leaders of democratic nations quickly
congratulating and recognizing the in-coimng political party that forms the
government with the conclusion of the thirteenth General Elections in Malaysia. Such acts by these model democartic national leaders certainly set a dangerous
precedent and seemingly make a preposterous proposition to their cirizens. This
is totally unacceptable as it goes against the very fundamentals of democracy.
Once we sacrifice the Athenian principle of democracy, democracy
is dead. It nullifies the global efforts to get nations to abort their tyrannical
regimes and embrace a democratic politics that will return to society what
rightfully belongs to humanity ā peace, progress, civil liberties and freedom. Citizens and leaders of nations and even congregations around
the world need to re-appraise this act by their respective nationās leaders if
we seriously do want to return democracy to its rightful position and
importance in a fast globalizing networked society that thrives on a borderless
economy.
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