The Post-Modern Coup in Malaysian Politics

Today is the 13th of September. I believe, most Malaysians would either feel nervous or don’t care less regarding the current political turmoil that we currently experience in our own backyard ( Thailand is far worse). Pak Lah is looking frailer than ever. Sometimes I wonder what actually he has been thinking all this while. Of course the real subject of the ‘next big thing’ in Malaysian politics will not going to be focusing on him rather on none other than the return of Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his quest for getting on the seat of power (read: Putrayaja).

 

Pragmatically, his ideas are being favoured by almost all Malaysians as they have grown tired on Barisan Nasional’s political antics. But I believe, as a responsible citiizen, we need to assess all areas of this coming post-modern coup de’tat for the sake of preserving our backyard from any kind of Machiavellian and oportunistics politicians.

 

Why did I say this 16th September as a coup rather than just ‘hopping’ from one party to another? First, the act, eventhough has garnered a lot of supports from various segments of our society is still far from democratic in its process. Well, what can you expect from those defaulters later? Politics, for most of them is their shortcut ticket for success. 

 

We all know how ‘short minded’ our politicians have beeen, be it from Barisan Nasional or even Pakatan Rakyat itself. Our politics is immature and very shallow in nature. Almost all the time the battle would be about ‘us versus them’ rather than ‘proposal versus refutation’. All I can say that our politics carry a heavy burden of relativism in finding the proper solutions for various problems. Relativism sometimes can be good but in a porous society like us, it can turn into a hideous creature that could wreck havoc among the ethnics.

 

We can never survive in a long run if we continue to play this political game under the shade of post modernity where relativism in finding Truth runs rampant. I believe how much some of you disagree that politics is free from any religious intervention,  the philosophical question for Truth must always be in the limelight in order for us to come close to the best solution for our society be it in economics, sociology and any other important fields that had and continuously shaped our life as Malaysian.

 

Wisdom ( or knowledge in its simpler form) is what we should acquire first before anyone of us would like to be a leader for their constitutions. That means, our politics must always be central upon knowledge as a source of arguments, refutations etc. Not like what we have today whereby emotions, antics and theatrics are the most efficient tools to garner support from the public. It reminds me about a bunch of people who being labeled as ‘Sophist’ ( in Islamic tradition they were labeled as Sufastaiyyah ) by Socrates during his time for being obsess in toppling down their opponent’s argument rather than debating to find truth on the issues concern. I believe in Malaysia we have more Sophists than any genuine ‘politician cum philosopher’ who would and should serve us better in this political drama. 

 

I have no qualm about Anwar Ibrahim and I will be very happy to perform my duty as a good citizen in helping him performing some check and balance activites upon his ideas and policies if he is really going to be the next PM. He is indeed an intelligent, charismatic and sensible leader at this moment. Alas, I don’t put too much hope on him because I belief the real problem that we currently have ( national unity, poverty) can never be solved under one prime minister as it involves more than just a political will but most importantly intellectual will in order to find solutions that could lead all of us to the real Truth (al-haqq).

 

I think we need, in Derrida’s word, to “deconstruct” most of the modern myths and the socio-condition of our people in order for us to have a proper foundation in, if I may use this word, ‘re-building’ our society back. The challenges are far complex than what we have ever hoped for especially regarding this coming 16th September. If you have read civilizational history perhaps you will understand what I have meant.

 

A post modern coup indeed.