Johor’s marriages of convenience

The countdown to the Johor state election is on. Some 2.7 million registered voters are eligible to elect 56 state assembly members.

But it is not the seat count that stands out. It is the 172 candidates chasing those 56 seats.

What is most troubling is not the size of the field. It is the political marriages being struck up. Perhaps some are secret. Others are out in the open. All are part of a strategy game to win control and, with it, power.

Allies-turned-rivals

Even Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, partners in the federal ‘unity government’, are fielding rival candidates against each other in all 56 seats. Both insist this proves they are truly democratic.

But it raises an obvious question. What happened to the unity they promised after the last general election?

Meanwhile, Pas is contesting in 11 seats and Bersatu in 16 seats under the banner of Perikatan Nasional, which is fielding candidates in 33 seats. The rest of the PN line-up includes a small number of candidates representing ethnic minorities.

On paper, this looks like democracy at work. It gives the impression that democratic rights are being exercised.

But beneath that cover lies a more questionable intent. Where PN has not fielded a candidate, the Pas leadership is asking voters to back Umno instead.

So what does that tell us about the party’s true motive?

Betraying the ballot

Marriages of convenience like these betray the very foundation of democracy. As Franklin D Roosevelt once said, democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, he argued, is education.

Such deceptive strategies are likely to intensify at the next general election. That is because the electorate has long been starved of civic education, from school to university.

Winning support once meant building faith and trust in a party’s ideology. That standard no longer seems to hold.

Instead, cunning strategies devoid of honour now cloak the parties. The scramble for power, control and access to wealth – power by any means – is robbing the nation of true democracy.

A new option

One party may be worth watching closely. Bersama, the country’s newest political party, is fielding 15 candidates, most of them young.

This fledgling party has shown no sign of seeking affiliation with any coalition. That gives some hope that democracy can see light at the end of the tunnel.

On 11 July, voters must decide what they want for their state and its people, the ‘orang Johor’. They owe it to a state that has long produced great leaders, among them Onn Jaafar, Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman and Hussein Onn, as well as prominent figures in industry such as businessman Robert Kuok.

But, as Roosevelt warned in 1941, people must beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the eagle in order to feather their own nests.

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