The Pakatan Harapan ship is worth saving; it just needs a little fine-tuning by removing some of the sailors and officers, writes Choo Sing Chye.
It would be a victory for ‘exclusionist politics’ in Malaysia if Muhyiddin Yassin’s coalition succeeds in grabbing power.
The collaborative politics of Tengku Abdul Raman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Mahathir Mohamad’s Pakatan Harapan and collaborative democracy would be dealt a fatal blow.
The current political turmoil was sparked by, among others, a man with huge, selfish ambition – none other than Mohamed Azmin Ali. This ambition gushed out into the open on Saturday night, ushering in the stench of exclusionist politics and throwing the country into turmoil.
Thirty years ago, on the first day of the Perak State Assembly, His Majesty Sultan Nazrin Shah (his father Sultan Azlan Shah was the Agong then) casually spoke to all 13 of us DAP state assembly members in the lobby.
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His Majesty’s message was clear as daylight – be bipartisan in our debates in the assembly to move Perak forward.
His Majesty’s message can be perfectly understood in this sense: “For democracy to work, people have to talk. For it to work well, we need to talk well. Or, in other words, a basic principle of democracy is that the ability of the general public to make appropriate decisions depends to a large degree on the quality of public discourse by elected representatives”.
Political theorists call this “deliberative or collaborative democracy”.
I sincerely hope Gabungan Parti Sarawak will choose collaborative democracy to save us all in Malaysia and reject once and for all the exclusionist politics practised by Umno, Pas and Muhyiddin.
I appeal to Mahathir, Kadir Jasin, Rais Hussin, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and others in Bersatu to understand that the PH ship is worth saving and it just needs a little fine-tuning by removing some of the sailors and officers.
Don’t turn your backs on the Rakyat.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
