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Friday, March 22, 2013

Is Chandra Muzaffar evil when he speaks sense?


http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/images/uploads/mugshots/chandra-muzaffar1-sept13.jpg 
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There is little doubt that Chandra Muzaffar is probably the most reviled and vilified public intellectual today. Every few months, with another Chandra article, comes another anti-Chandra riposte that is largely character assassination. Yet sometimes he makes sense.
The trouble is, he mixes the common-sense words with an apologia for the current Barisan Nasional, together with his series of attacks on Anwar Ibrahim’s integrity. And every time he does, there is an explosion, in various forms.
The latest attack by Choo Sing Chye, widely reproduced around the opposition web, is an attempt to hoist Chandra by his own petard by recalling what Chandra the social reformer had written in years before. Other attacks on Chandra come with reminders that this widely-respected social reformer of the 1970s and 1980s turned his back on Anwar Ibrahim and Parti Keadilan and wheeled into the embrace of Mahathir Mohamad and the Barisan Nasional.
In trying to look up the background about this latest attack (Chandra’s work is very low on the personal horizon, there’s too much going on), I came across Chandra’s piece in February:
…when a government is overthrown in a democracy there is no guarantee that its successor will be able to ensure the triumph of good, clean governance partly because the scope for radical, holistic change in a competitive party system with deep, vested interests is limited…
A little bit of common sense
A little bit of common sense
Makes sense to me.
If Pakatan Rakyat takes power this year, it will inherit a government system that has been morally, institutionally and personally corrupted by half a century of twisted Barisan Nasional rule. Changing the system will take time.
Pakatan leaders will need to change the workings of the civil service, get anti-corruption agencies to work professionally, get lawyers and judges to restore honour in the judicial system, restore honesty in the workings of the federal and state governments, and at municipal councils.
It’s a huge mountain to climb.
On top of that, every Pakatan politician getting into power must face their own challenge to personal honesty and integrity. Because nothing succeeds like success, Pakatan politicians will be wooed and sweet-talked by new business and corporate friends, people with money to spend and the will to spend it when it matters, in order to make more money.
To take one example, every arms merchant will try to take advantage of public anger about Altantuya and Scorpene submarines to push out DCNS. Is Pakatan angry about DCNS, about Altantuya’s murder, about RM580mil kickbacks — or is Pakatan being supported by competitors of DCNS?
That’s how the world works. It is only common sense to always keep that in mind.
Chandra is not the first to observe that changing the people in power does not automatically mean an end to corruption. All through history, people have found that the revolution is eventually perverted by the very people who rode the wave into power.
Thus, the people must remain on their toes. Chandra said in February:
…one should not expect a miracle to happen with the advent of a new government…the “true test of a person’s character is not when he is in adversity but when he has power” … institutions outside the arena of power politics such as the Courts, enforcement agencies and people’s movements have been more effective in curbing corruption in democratic societies. It is these institutions that Malaysian citizens should help to strengthen.
Nothing to quarrel about. That is also what Pakatan must do.
But it is not politicians alone who will deliver real change: it is the people themselves who will — ordinary people who keep up the pressure on politicians; people who work within the system who try to be fair and honest; ordinary people who demand that politicians and the system prove that they are working for the better good of the people.
…Malaysians would do well to adopt a critical but balanced approach towards politicians of all stripes.
In other words, don’t put all your trust in the politicians you voted into power. Keep them on their toes. Don’t relax just because you voted out the hated Barisan Nasional. Don’t relax because your friends are now in power. Be as equally demanding on your “friends” — they must deliver what the people want. Demand real changes, don’t accept excuses or make excuses for them — don’t blindly “give chance lah we are still new”.
Our best hope lies in continuing to speak truth to power on both sides of the divide.
It may go against the grain to question your friends, but when politicians get into power, they are no longer “friends” — they are now servants of the people, and they’d better expect to be questioned, and they’d better not think they are now the new masters.
Why then does Chandra is so vilified?
Because every time he speaks some good, he also speaks some evil: he reverts back on track with the BN message Don’t trust Pakatan, don’t trust Anwar Ibrahim. His common-sense advice is forgotten. Opposition supporters can only see that Chandra is again walloping Anwar and Pakatan. (Many don’t read beyond the third paragraph.)
Common sense mixed with anti-Anwar propaganda
Back to form: common sense mixed with anti-Anwar propaganda
In his article “Pakatan: Combating Corruption for Yayasan 1Malaysia, a huge chunk of words is about the BN’s supposed efforts against corruption, then a huge chunk walloping Anwar who he says has “such a tarnished record on issues of ethics?”
That’s Chandra’s usual thing. But he is only half right that “Anwar and Pakatan could not lay claim to the moral high ground “. Heck, all politicians — BN ones especially — are not saints. And when he seems to make a common-sense call that “Voters should understand this. They should evaluate them for what they are and not be mesmerized by their words”, again he is only half right, and is spinning out another BN message.
True, voters must never be mesmerized by any politician’s words — not by Najib’s words nor Mahathir’s; not by Anwar’s words, nor Kit Siang’s, Guan Eng’s or Mat Sabu’s.
Voters, citizens, must call out the bullshit from all politicians. Hold them to account — not just at election time but every day. Now and in future.
And stop treating politics as a game. They want you to think it’s just Premier League. Of course Anwar and friends want to play Premier League — otherwise how could he become premier?
But that should not be our game. We should not be playing any game. It’s our life and our children’s lives — the food they eat, the air they breathe, the houses they will live in, the life they will have. That’s no game.
It’s not about who wins and who loses. That does not matter. What they actually do for us every day, and not for their sponsors — that’s what matters.

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