Malaysia: NGO Candidates For The Election?


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NGO Candidates For The Election?

Prospects for a Rainbow Coalition

by Johan Saravanamuttu

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The WCI candidate Zaitun Kassim was able to significantly reduce the MCA candidate's winning margin

As we are all too aware, Malaysian general elections have many systemic or structural features which have militated against the success of non-incumbents and opposition party candidates. Nonetheless, a certain number of opposition figures do get elected and let�s not forget that some 44 percent of the electorate actually voted against the BN in 1999. In this brief note, I want to argue that it is perhaps time for Malaysian electorate to have a taste of what many other democracies have experienced and �enjoyed�, namely, the choice of candidates who will stand for universal issues such as human rights, the environment and gender issues. But before one goes further it�s important to begin with a reality check on the electoral politics that prevails in this country.

Major Features and Constraints

The first point to remember is that the �first-past-the-post� electoral system (not a proportional representation or mixed system) means that non-incumbents generally, including would-be new political groups, with few resources will be seriously disadvantaged in any election, let alone win. This notwithstanding, we know that important issues like accountability, transparency, human rights, environmental degradation, rape, violence and child abuse do strike a chord with Malaysians. However, these issues are championed mainly by NGOs and small political parties, which have inadequate resources to effectively contest elections. The deposits alone for contest have been raised today to RM20,000 while the upper limit for electoral spending has been increased to RM200,000. Of course, much, much more is really spent. The point, nonetheless, is that the system favours those with resources.

The second point to be made is that by and large ethnic politics still determines the success of both government and opposition candidates. This is only partly due to the manner in which constituencies are delineated but mostly because the main political parties mobilise votes using ethnic and sometimes religious affiliation. And voters are still largely hooked to such ethnic pulls rather than influenced by universal, non-ethnic matters. It is true and unfortunate that Malaysian political culture remains dismally backward on this score.

I would like to suggest that NGOs could use the same tactic as the WCI in 1999 and negotiate with the BA (or the BN if it would respond to such overtures) to offer a number of mixed seats for their candidates to contest on issues of gender, environment, human rights, etc.

Thirdly, candidates are pre-selected by political parties, whether government or opposition. That is, parties already have a fixed number of seats allocated to them well in advance of nomination day. In the last election, parliamentary seats in the Peninsula were allocated by the BN as follows: UMNO contested 93 of the 98 Malay-majority constituencies, other BN parties contested 51 Malay, Chinese and Mixed constituencies. The BA did much the same in pre-allocation of constituencies with PAS taking the largest share of Malay-majority seats, the DAP, Chinese-majority seats, keADILan, mixed seats and PRM some �others� as follows: PAS - 66; DAP - 36 (including one to �women� and one to PSM), keADILan � 44 and PRM � 4.

Enter the NGOs?

In the last election women�s groups got together and launched the Women�s Candidacy Initiative (WCI) which secured a seat for contest, courtesy of the DAP. The WCI grew out of the larger concerns of women�s groups contained in a document called Women�s Agenda for Change (WAC). The concerted work of the women�s groups proves that NGOs can mobilize significant electoral support. Other civil society groups, like The People are the Bosses and Pemantau, which were non-ethnic in approach, involved themselves in various campaigns but took no direct part in electoral contest.

Given this similar sort of scenario in the coming election how then are civil society groups with important issues to project their perspectives? Campaigning without contesting could well continue. However, the Election Commission has opened the doors to direct NGO contestation in the coming election by announcing that they can put up candidates. Is this a ploy to de-fang some of the more vociferous NGOs or simply a slip of the tongue by the commission?

I would like to suggest that NGOs could use the same tactic as the WCI in 1999 and negotiate with the BA (or the BN if it would respond to such overtures) to offer a number of mixed seats for their candidates to contest on issues of gender, environment, human rights, etc. If enough of a concerted effort is made this could impact significantly on the electorate.

Purely on rational grounds, the BA is the better choice to begin the quest for a �Rainbow Coalition�. Not only would the BA be politically more inclined to do so but it would also be seeking to fill up 25 new parliamentary and numerous other state constituencies in the coming election and would therefore need credible candidates to contest them. The WCI candidate Zaitun Kassim in garnering 26,144 votes in Selayang (Selangor) in 1999 was able to significantly reduce MCA�s Chan Kong Choy�s winning margin to about 9,000. A combination of civil society forces championing a concerted campaign on the many social issues of the day may be able to do better in similar mixed constituencies.

Johan Saravanamuttu is Professor of Politics in Universiti Sains Malaysia. He is also secretary of the Aliran Trust Board.

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