Thursday July 3, 2008

A telenovela in itself

A WRITER'S LIFE
By DINA ZAMAN

Malaysian politics is finally growing up. So sit tight, and watch the show. It’s going to be exciting.

THE week they all came back to Malaysia for good, there was the fuel price rise, Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s statutory declaration, and ... this.

I told my kid sister: you guys left Singapore for this?

Wow. Out of a pristine, sterile, urbane island, they’re back to a circus. Malaysia is a telenovela in itself. I wonder whether other countries have peccadilloes like this. I don’t think Hollywood is even creative enough to make a movie like Malaysia.

Of course my friends in international finance are squawking. This is going to drive out our investors! I don’t care whether He Who Shall Not Be Named did it or not, but we are sunk economically. We’re going to be like Zimbabwe! We’ll be using leaves as currency!

My activist and political observer friends see this in a more positive light. With destruction and chaos, comes hope and peace.

But they do agree that there needs be a healthy transition period, whoever leads the country. Name-calling and accusations can take one so far; a good, transparent and honest judiciary is what is needed now.

The question is: Are the fundamentals in place? Because there doesn’t seem to be any.

The Lawyer said: “We are currently seeing political dynamics of unparalleled intensity although qualitatively, they remain light years from sophistication. It seems chaotic at times, dynamic at other times, but comical almost all the time.

“Free speech is a new thing. Transparency means listening to what the administration reveals or chooses to reveal. And the party is left with a void. A power and ability void.”

If anything, Malaysians should not fear the chaos.

“If we all had a system where everyone is seen as equals, if the system were managed by competent people, and if society and large sections of the population could learn to live without handouts, I’m fairly certain we could actually go further down the road to development, and by this I mean not just economically, but in a more well-rounded way,” remarked another friend.

As a writer, I’m not going to even pretend to be clever and analyse the situation. The work that I do seems so far away from the political landscape and yet it is political, too.

We are grappling with urban poverty ... health issues that have been sidelined because they don’t fit in with the Successful Muslim Country that we are (Breast Cancer is sexy. HIV/AIDS is not) ... religious and cultural mores and practices that hinder a country and its people’s growth.

We have to deal with inter-faith and intra-faith issues. Race and religion will be increasingly sensitive, and not just among those who do not share the same faith.

Education. Privacy and vigilance issues. The constant desecration, and forgetting, of history and culture, and the social engineering. This charade is taking attention away from what really matters.

Now, I am in no way discounting the saga we are witnessing now. This is very real, and will have implications on our future, but the Real Malaysia is not heeded. We have forgotten one essential ingredient in our pursuit of success. We have forgotten compassion.

Enough is enough. We want dramas on TV and in film. Not in governance.

Zaidel, who had made a passing appearance in my column before, likened this whole political climate to Desperate Housewives.

“We have the murder of a pretty young woman, in which a housewife is supposedly involved. A sex scandal with a family friend (or gardener) – Gabrielle Solis.

“The state of confusion in the biggest political party in Malaysia is similar to the Scavo household. The prodigal son of a conservative pious family (the Van der Kamps) that involves a homosexual affair with a friend, and the power struggle to win the neighbourhood presidency between Katherine and Lynette.

“Orson’s mother that keeps coming back to interfere in the affairs of the Hodge family and simply refusing to sit back quiet in the retirement home.

“Let’s not forget the women and men who keep changing partners, jump here jump there, join this household, leave that household, then come back to the same household. “But in the end, it’s still the same bunch of characters in a small street in Wisteria Lane having scandals with each other.”

In short, we are all mad. Perhaps it is true what Dr Farish Noor said, in his talk at The Annexe, Central Market, last Sunday. The ‘Of Dewas, Maharajas, Dewarajas and Kerajaan’ lecture brought forth the idea, and a mindset inherited during the feudal times, that we’re all looking for heroes.

The battle right now is really about claiming stake to a throne. When are we, the people, going to take back our lives and rule the earth?

When are we going to emulate one of the 1940s nationalist movement slogans, ‘Raja itu Rakyat, Rakyat Itu Raja’? (The sovereign is of the people, and the people are the sovereign).

AK remarked that all this should be taken positively. He opined: “I think Malaysian politics today is fantastic. People are beginning to dare to speak up.

“OK, some of us (politicians included) may say some ridiculous things, but that’s fine. The fact is we are speaking. We just need to accept that there are diverse opinions.

“One thing Malaysians have to learn, and are beginning to face, is that a change of government should not mean a downturn in economy or a drastic change in our lives.

“Look at the West, their countries change government all the time, and they still go on, business as usual.”

Malaysian politics is finally growing up and I’m enjoying it. So sit tight, and let’s watch the show. It’s going to be exciting.

The writer does not watch Desperate Housewives. It’s too crazy to understand.