Sunday, May 24, 2020

Harapan became harapan-less to supporters


Malaysiakini:

Restoring Harapan?

by Bridget Welsh

Malaysiakini

COMMENT | Within a year, Umno was able to turn around its devastating defeat of May 2018 and reengage its political base, tapping into its resource and machinery advantages. Within less than another year, it was able to return to power in a new coalition. Despite factionalism and not being strong enough to hold power on its own, Umno is best posed to secure the most support if elections are called soon. They (and PAS) have a sweet spot – in power but not responsible for that power.

Today, three months have passed since the Pakatan Harapan government collapsed. To date, there has been little serious reflection on the reasons that the government fell. Blame has focused on those who grabbed power. Analyses of Harapan’s role – what little there is of it - has centred on the personalities involved – especially Dr Mahathir Mohamad. This piece aims to push the discussion further, to draw attention to additional issues that should be addressed for Harapan to restore hope to its supporters.

Leadership trap

Foremost, is the problem of leadership. Repeatedly the Malaysian public has been caught in the destructive distrust of Harapan’s two leaders – Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir. These tensions continue to divide the opposition coalition and prevent it from moving forward. Both men have been badly damaged, with large shares of the electorate wanting to move beyond these individuals.


Besides personal loyalty, support for these leaders within Harapan stems from perceived strategic strengths of both men – Mahathir’s appeal to parts of the Malay ground and Anwar’s appeal to reformers as a long-standing leader fighting for change. Both of these arguments lost ground during Harapan’s tenure in office.

The by-elections before February this year showed serious decline in Malay support – as the Mahathir factor had completely eroded. Nowhere was this clearer than in the Tanjong Piai by-election in Johor. For Anwar, the focus on his own role as leader, as opposed to reforms, has undercut his credibility with voters. The distrust of the two men for each other is being overshadowed by distrust of these leaders in the electorate – including the voters that helped bring about the May 2018 victory.


Given Malaysia’s younger population and leadership divisions, the time is ripe for new leaders to emerge. Harapan has talented younger leaders. There also is considerable talent outside of political parties – young Malaysians who are serving the country but are being turned off from the confines of leadership competition and nastiness of politics. Now, in opposition, Harapan has a chance to regroup and rebuild its leadership cohort. An essential element of this is to form a shadow cabinet to allow these different talents to grow and to reach outside the parties.

Emotional polarisation

Harapan got into office in 2018 by combining anger with hope. Of these two, anger was the main driver – as the opposition has long stoked resentments and frustrations. As its chances of victory got closer, its traditional frustrated base became more hopeful (envisioning a new Malaysia), but ultimately it was the mobilisation anger of younger and traditional Umno voters, state nationalism of East Malaysians and marginalisation of the lower classes that pushed Harapan over the electoral finish line in May two years ago.

Both sides of the political divide do this – appeal to their base through negative emotions – fear, displacement, insecurity and anger. These emotional appeals are intertwined around the sensitive and divisive cords of race and religion, and the country’s deep political polarisation.


Najib Abdul Razak’s leadership as prime minister relied on further accentuating polarisation to keep himself in office in 2013. The failure to dominate the "emotional" sentiments in May 2018 was an integral part of his downfall. Since being rejected by the majority of the electorate in GE14 and as he works to forge a political comeback, he has collaborated with PAS (which he was effectively doing since 2015) to galvanise resentments, to build back the core that eroded. There are costs to mobilising these divisive emotions, not only is the country harder to govern, these zero-sum sentiments only further polarisation.

Back to the base

Harapan, on its part, expects that potential anger towards Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) government will work in its favour moving forward. This assumption is premature at this juncture as Harapan’s own base has eroded.

Harapan has underestimated three important issues. First of all, its failure to respond to its base while in office. A majority of non-Malays supported Harapan and they have few concrete substantive policy areas that they can identify with the Harapan government – around education, discrimination and inclusion, to name a few arenas. Harapan core supporters were taken for granted and, in fact, beaten up on as Mahathir failed to respect the voters that put him into office.


Macca* High 

[*Macca = McDonald burgers, wakakaka ðŸ˜‚😂😂]



Malaysian Chinese Association

Equally important were voters across ethnic communities who wanted reform – in political institutions and practices as well as the economy. After one year on a honeymoon high, the hopes of many Harapan supporters were badly dashed in policy reversals and an unclear set of policy priorities poorly communicated. This sentiment, the loss of hope, stills stings for many voters – in cynicism and a quiet distancing from politicians at large.

Economic performance

Harapan apparently believed that they were going to be in office for much longer than they were. Without clear priorities, they squandered opportunities for reform. Debates surround what they accomplished – especially as much of it in merit-based appointees and Parliament are being quickly dismantled. Important changes to the administration of the media, rule of law and anti-corruption are also being currently tested.

Harapan has to deal with the perception that it did not fulfil what it promised to do – that some of its own members were enthralled with power and position as opposed to implementing programmes and public service. While expectations were high, arguably unattainable, and resistance was strong (even within Harapan itself), Harapan’s reform record in office has to be grappled with.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the management of the economy. Growth slowed. Contracts were cancelled, sometimes arbitrarily for perceived political ties with the previous regime rather than on merits. Those displaced from funds were upset with the new context, and those who wanted access to funds were unhappy when they were not forthcoming. Mahathir’s resistance to pumping funds into the economy to stimulate growth and address the more vulnerable lower classes further undercut Harapan politically. The Shared Prosperity initiative had no real traction and minimal substance.

KL High Speed Rail – Kuala Lumpur to Singapore High Speed Rail ...

Despite some good ideas, Mahathir’s government lacked clear direction and an overall vision on how to develop the economy in today’s interconnected world. Measures to develop a "gig" economy were uneven and as the Covid-19 crisis has shown, did not necessarily provide the job security needed. The myopic attention on 1MDB's clean-up and debt management (both handled well despite the lack of high-profile completed prosecutions) did Harapan a disservice as this was not felt by the public at large.


Opposition-like thinking – that all those connected to the system were the enemy – undercut possible alliances needed to build relationships to transform the economy. The dominant mode inside was competition rather than cooperation. The end result was "back to normal" practices that involved patronage, maintaining monopolies and other imbalances/strangleholds in the economy and limited restructuring of the government-linked sector.


Ultimately, one of the challenges Harapan faces is winning back the support of the business community, many who are resistant to reform and were frustrated with Harapan’s lacklustre economic performance. By 2018, the mood of much of the business community overall had moved toward accepting change. They wanted more deliverables that were not delivered. Whether this sentiment towards change will reemerge surrounding the economic troubles ahead will require not just riding on negative sentiments but developing clear programmes and priorities to strengthen and recover Malaysia’s economy.

Clearer ‘New Malaysia’ vision

Harapan spoke regularly about "New Malaysia" and recent statements reaffirm that they are tied to this concept. In office, there never was a clear articulation of what this concept meant. For most Malaysians, this rubric became the handle for their own dreams for the country’s future – and there are many different (often conflicting) dreams.

The lack of clarity over "New Malaysia" stemmed from Harapan’s own differences on this vision. Arguably the biggest sticking point was how to address long-standing differences over race and religion. Within Harapan, these issues undercut cooperation – as there are different perspectives about the role of Islam, prioritisation of race over other social cleavages in policy, state rights/autonomy and rights of communities, among others. 


Mahathir said: “... Orang asing berasa selesa dengan negara kita dan mereka ingin tinggal di sini. Nak tak nak pun, kita terpaksa terima, kalau tidak kita tidak akan mencapai kemerdekaan"

(The foreigners felt comfortable in this country and wanted to stay. Like it or not, we were forced to accept or we would not have achieved independence)

To Mahathir, the Malaysian 'nons' were/are only 'Orang Asing' (foreigners)  


Moving forward, experience calls out for clearer priorities. Rather than be a strategic alliance to remove one person – Najib – there is a need to articulate what New Malaysia stands for – and this should not just be a laundry list of (many unrealistic) promises in an election manifesto.

Any essential element of moving forward involves addressing public perception problems. The demonisation of the DAP stands as a serious obstacle for Harapan to win broad support across races. The lack of broad Malay support for Harapan is a product of the effectiveness of the Umno-led campaign. This effectiveness, however, is not just the result of the mobilisation of fear, insecurity and ethnic differences, but the connection to the hubris and confrontational style of some DAP leaders. This party – like others across the political divide – have lost touch with its own base and has failed in outreach outside of its base.

KTemoc Konsiders ........: The over-inflated Tony Pua

KTemoc Konsiders ........: The over-inflated Tony Pua

KTemoc Konsiders ........: The over-inflated Tony Pua

DAP’s image problem is Harapan’s image problem. From what the coalition stands for to its leadership and legacy in the short period in office, Harapan cannot restore hope until it meaningfully addresses concerns that go beyond the conflict of two men and their loyalists. This involves turning away from elite politics to more substantive engagement with the public and party grassroots. This is difficult to do when one Harapan party (PKR) is involved in a purge and broader sentiments surrounding the loss of government still sting.

If Harapan is to restore hope, it needs to regroup, rebuild, rebrand, re-strategise and reengage its supporters– the starting point is to think seriously about the reasons they lost the harapan of many of their supporters and Malaysians at large while in office.


BRIDGET WELSH is a Senior Research Associate at the Hu Fu Centre for East Asia Democratic Studies, a Senior Associate Fellow of The Habibie Centre, and a University Fellow of Charles Darwin University. She currently is an Honorary Research Associate of the University of Nottingham, Malaysia's Asia Research Institute (Unari) based in Kuala Lumpur

4 comments:

  1. dap made a irredeemable mistake in tarc, unlike uec, no recognition mean status quo, but stop the grant is taking away something belong to u. hence chinese start to believe that to depend on dap alone is probably not a good idea, they gave their vote to mca. from bersatu pov, if dap as coalition partner cant secure chinese vote, who else they can rely upon? of course there r many other issues, but i think this is the last straw that demolish chinese hope towards dap.

    n the irony is that, many chinese wanted to teach bersatu a lesson, we achieved what we want n now bersatu achieved what they want, but surprisingly chinese are not that happy, conman oso. however to the chinese relief, we can still find one conman to blame, its always somebody else fault.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bridget does a fair analysis of why PH failed, but let's not despair, the 22 months should be looked as a case of half-glass full.

    Imagine if PH had lost GE14 and BN had continued their rape and plunder.

    Jibby would still be PM. All his crooked mega-projects would be continuing as we speak, in the midst of Covid-19 and economic disaster.

    Full blown ECRL (100 Billion) would be continuing, but with Covid-19 which investor would now be building factories along the East Coast necessitating the huge haulage capacity to Port Klang? But too much money had already been paid, and fortunately the PH government had greatly reduced the scope and arm twisted the Chinese to share 50/50 the operational cost.

    HSR was delayed 2 years. I wonder if even the SGP government would want to continue with this project, in view of the new norm - work from home. Why not Zoom online for free instead of paying RM300 to Zoom to SGP....ha ha ha. The economics of a 80 billion HSR was always doubtful to begin with, now it is clearly stupid. So thanks PH for stopping it.

    PH bottled the Melaka Gateway project - 40 billion.

    Gas pipelines in Peninsular and Sabah - 15 billion (85% paid for only 13% work done)

    MRT projects reduced in scope saving tens of billions - our 9-5 workday commute will be changed after Covid-19, we wont't need such an expensive network

    TRX and Bandar Malaysia would be continuing full speed, building more office, commercial, lifestyle and high end condos that nobody needs, except Jibby of course, who needed it to pay back the 1MDB money that was stolen. Fortunately Guanee had detoxified and restructured the projects.

    And most importantly, if not for the 22 months, GST would still be with us, and BN would probably be increasing it, maybe to 15% like Saudi Arabia, to pay for all these mega-projects, on top of the un-returned GST tax collected and 1 trillion debt, which me, my children and grandchildren would have to pay for.

    The valuable experience that the young leaders were exposed to in these 22 months will be valuable for multi-racial future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes without TM PH could not have won GE14 but his leadership in the past 22 months left much to be desired. Instead of gelling all the PH components parties together TM left them to fend for themselves n Tg Pia shows how deep the rot have set in.

    Yes Guanee have done a "good job" in handling or renegotiating most of the mega projects and the discontinuation of gst. But do he really knows why the people rejected the gst in the 1st place - one it is the starting rate of 6% n two it affect all businesses with a cap of 500k all bizs are affected. When PH reintroduce the sst which is a very inefficient tax collection Guanee need to cover the shortfall in a numbers of way eg like tweeting the RPGT collection for transaction even after 5 years n not pumping or doing some QE to lift the economy

    Basically the people did not feel much difference bet BN n PH. Prices of goods keep going up. Our exchange rate remain the same or deteriorated.
    Petrol price didn't go down.
    Toll still exist.
    Racial polarisation go from bad to worst.
    The people don't feel the Malaysia Baru.

    Yes Guanee save a lot for the country but can he give a bit more to the people.

    How not to Harapanless

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right on a few points here.

      Many, are very resentful about that RPGT thingy.....even after 5 years, they still have to bear a tax if they dispose their property. They feel victimized.

      As for the toll, stories are flying out now that there were huge tussle behind the scene, with DAP fighting tooth and nail with the Old Man on this ( one more reason why he said in the leaked audio ...'I don't like DAP'? )

      As for the racial deterioration, it was quite amazing that the Harapan government allow the opposition ( Umno and Pas ) to get away with blatant hate speech without any effort seen to reign them in. Is this deliberate, one wonders ?

      Of course people don't feel the Malaysia Baru....as the leaked audio now revealed that the leader himself already had plans to split from the coalition, he clearly said in the audio leak Bersatu will definitely get out of Harapan, it's only a matter of timing. Jeez...HP has absolutely no chance with the very leader himself backstabbing his partners, all the while smiling and genial in front of his unknowing colleagues. Real shit

      Delete