Lessons in DEmocracy- Part 2 of 3.

Congratulations to Anwar.

For exposing the dark side of UMNO. As Milton Friedman said: The battle for freedom must be won over and over again.
The idea of universal democracy- rests on 2 pillars. The right to platform and the right to recall. Both are at play in the coming Kajang by-election. The kajang people are in a historic position in our democratic history. Never before have we been conscious of a game changing process.

Right of platforms.

The right of platform means the people have the right to know what the winners of an election will do after they have been elected. This right of platform belongs to the people as well as the political parties. Right of platform to political parties means they are free to present policies, ideas and specific programs for the betterment of the people.

That right to political parties is unrestrained subject only to the disapproval of voters at the end. This means UMNO and BN can present whatever policies, ideas, specific programmes and contents of a special manifesto they want for the Kajang by-election. They can offer racist, nationalist, reich-wing programs or whatever- they can offer smut to people as the big idea which they can muster instead of defending the various elements in their manifesto so grandiosely launched by Kim Il Najib before GE13.

This is the beauty about right of platforms. Political parties are free to present and market their regressive policies to the people. This means, the right of platforms provide a medium of expression of the dark forces in our society. It is therefore cathartic in nature in that it allows UMNO for instance to market and offer its racists programs, holier than thou policies, its bullying and corrupting practices and even sordid sex details to the public. In the coming Kajang election, the freedom to offer platforms has exposed that UMNO is nothing, but a pedlar of pornography. That’s how UMNO runs the country. That’s how they roll.

Now, the regressive programs of UMNO measure the moral health of UMNO and put everyone on notice about UMNO’s racial, religious and national sentiments. What can we say about that? UMNO and its president are morally bankrupt. 
Exposing UMNO’s hypocrisy is worth the spending by SPR. The worthiness is already apparent by the incoherent responses from BN leaders and their media minions. The utterances expose them for what they truly are.

So technically, the chairman of SPR is right in saying, SPR has no supervisory role to play in political parties drawing up its election platform. It has a supervisory role on the conduct of election proper.

The right to platform introduces the idea of contractarian politics. The right to offer platforms raises the responsibility to implement them. To avoid parties using platforms to offer empty rhetoric, we the people, treat them as contracts whereby, having offered us the platforms and accepting them by voting them in, we have something like a contract. Hence contractarian politics, whereby winning parties are obligated to carry out their programs.

The worth of this by-election to the Kajang people.

The people of Kajang have the opportunity to strip UMNO naked and expose its regressive programmes. The people of Kajang will have the opportunity to combat and destroy UMNO’s regressive platforms through dialogue and rebuttal. We engage the people in dialogues instead of using the mentally-challenged method of making police reports or invoking the fear of another May 13. And the best form of rebuttal is by voting against UMNO and BN in a great way by making them lose their deposit. Let them eat Kangkung.

UMNO fears Anwar Ibrahim.
That’s the truth which explains the morbidity and maniacal responses from UMNO and its underlings. With Anwar leading Selangor in whatever position the PKR coalition eventually agrees, we will see a stronger political leadership with matching political skills to combat the evil machinations of UMNO.

Let’s face it; Khalid Ibrahim is a sound manager for Selangor. The results speak for themselves- good budgetary management, surplus reserves, good all round management, etc. what he lacks are political skills- the skills needed to consolidate power in Selangor. A weak political leadership can lead to a BN takeover and whatever reserves that Selangor has accumulated can be frittered away in an instance.

Consolidation of political power is the key for Selangor. The issue of whether Anwar can become MB or not, should not distract us from the bigger picture- Selangor is the lynchpin state pointing to Putrajaya’s heart. Let’s give them a heart attack.

Waste of public funds.

SPR is going to spend some RM2 million for the by-election. UMNO is going to spend whatever it takes to stop Anwar. Maybe billions. I hope the Kajang people take whatever money BN gives them and consider them as atonement money for the evil BN has done. People are not obligated to reciprocate by voting in BN.

The RM2 million- budget for the by-election is only equivalent to one year’s utility bills for the PM’s official residence. The expenditure can never equal the wastage committed by the PM and his government. The amount of money spent on operating and maintaining the various executive jets is much bigger.

So the people can reject the pious and sanctimonious pleadings by UMNO and its BN underlings that this by-election is a waste of money. Right thinking people should not fall for the pretentious pleadings of BN leaders who are staring right in the face of exposure of their hypocrisy.

Right to Recall.

It shall be money worth spending to allow the people to exercise the right to recall. Right to recall is the modern equivalent to the Malays' right to repudiate the Original Covenant between Demang Lebar Daun and Seri Teri Buana. It’s the modern equivalent to the withdrawal of the mandate of heaven. It provides voters the opportunity to re-evaluate the platform which BN promised at the onset of GE13.

The Kajang people can use this by-election to reaffirm their vigorous objection to what BN has done after GE13- which is reneged on almost all its platform. Punish them severely by sending a strong message that, eventually the rakyat has the right to recall, i.e. the right to censure the ruling government, without waiting for the periodic 5 years. That message can serve to educate the whole of the country. The opportunity to censure and reaffirm the rakyat’s displeasure is worth the RM2 million that SPR is going to spend. UMNO and BN are going to spend much more. Just wait for the torrential rainfall of money in Kajang.

So, in this respect I congratulate Anwar Ibrahim and PKR for enhancing the meaning of universal democracy. This is a great opportunity for the people of Kajang to also teach Najib and UMNO the meaning of the entirety rule. According to this principle, once having won the right to govern, the legal winner governs the entire nation not just the section of that nation that voted for them. 
Let us pray and work for Anwar's victory for his victory is ours too.