Ketari by-election will have far-reaching influence on post-911 Malaysian nation-building policies - whether the Barisan Nasional government can use the  911 fears of terrorism and extremism to trample on the people’s aspirations for justice, freedom, democracy and good governance

(Bentong,  Saturday):  Ketari by-election will have far-reaching influence on post-911 Malaysian nation-building policies - whether the Barisan Nasional government can use the  911 fears of terrorism and extremism to trample on the people’s aspirations for justice, freedom, democracy and good governance.  

The 911 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington  have been a boon to incumbents in government, especially authoritarian regimes not only to  justify their undemocratic and repressive laws but to introduce even more draconian legislation and policies to  further clamp down on democracy,  human rights and justice  which have nothing to do with the war against terrorism and Malaysia is no exception.  

In the  Australian national elections on November 10, 2001,  John Howard was able to head off a certain defeat for his coalition by fully exploiting the 911  "terror" card in the Australian polls.  

This 911  "terror" election campaign has become  the most important weaponry of the Barisan Nasional electoral arsenal, which is  hundreds-fold more powerful than its three-decades-old "May 13" campagn of fear, and  such tactics had already been employed with great effect in the Sarawak state general elections in September last year and the Indera Kayangan by-election in Perlis in January this year.  

On March 31, the Ketari by-election will produce the “Ketari effect” which will have far-reaching influence on post-911 Malaysian politics and  nation-building policies.  

The voters of Ketari will have the historic responsibility in the coming week to decide the meaning of this “Ketari effect” - whether it is to mean that the Barisan Nasional government can exploit the people’s fears of terrorism and extremism to become even more undemocratic, unaccountable and unresponsive to the people’s aspirations for justice, freedom, democracy and human rights, or whether the people of Ketari are to speak loud and clear on behalf of all Malaysians that while they stand as one with the government in opposing terrorism and extremism, they will not allow the Barisan Nasional to use the 911 “terror” card to drown out the people’s many legitimate concerns in the past two years since the 1999 general elections, such as:    

• The  crackdown on human rights through  in the arbitrary use  of the Internal Security Act against  Opposition leaders and activists and the clampdown on freedom of speech and assembly such as the undemocratic and unjustified ban on ceramahs;  
•  The high-handed appointment of the new Attorney-General, Datuk Abdul Gani Patail in disregard of the fundamental principles of constitutional propriety and good governance  raising anew widespread public concerns about the rule of law and the administration of  justice in the country;  
• The increasing emasculation of Parliament to be a  meaningful and  highest political forum of the people, as illustrated by the arbitrary and undemocratic suspension of DAP MP for Batu  Gajah, Fong Po Kuan for six months without allowance   whose only crime was  her  dedication to her parliamentary duties to speak up for the people;  
•  The unabated scandals of abuse and misuse of public funds, corruption, cronyism and nepotism - whether involving Time dotCom,  MAS, Renong-UEM, Indah Water Konsortium, Perwaja,  the Tabung Haji scandal or the lowest EPF dividend of 5% in 38 yeasrs.  
• The unresolved Damansara Chinese primary school and Vision School controversies  demonstrating the refusal of the  Barisan Nasional to fully respect the educational aspirations of the diverse population in a plural society.  
• The unilateral abrogation of the 44-year “Social Contract” of our forefathers from the three communities in the  1957 Merdeka Constitution, which was reaffirmed by the peoples of Sarawak and Sabah in 1963, of Malaysia  as a democratic, secular, multi-religious and progressive nation  with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state when the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad declared at the Gerakan national conference on September 29, 2001 that Malaysia was already an Islamic state - fully endorsed by the Barisan Nasional component parties like the Gerakan, MCA and MIC.  

The question is whether these and other many pressing issues of justice, freedom, democracy and good governance would be completely lost and drowned when the Barisan Nasional plays its 911 terror card with the accompaniment of the politics of falsehoods and lies.  

Two nights ago, the Gerakan President Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik proclaimed: “I have a photo of Lim Kit Siang and Nik Aziz attending a dinner on March 4 organised by PAS to raise funds for Fong Po Kuan, the suspended DAP Member of Parliament for Batu Gajah”, as if this was some feat of espionage comparable to the exploits of  CIA, KGB or Mossad intelligence services.  

It is clear that Keng Yaik regards politics as a “game” to be won at any costs without regard to principles or morals - where lies and untruths are the most important currency.  

My attendance of the PAS Kota Bahru “Solidarity with Fong Po Kuan” dinner in Kota Bahru on March 4 was a public event, covered by the print and electronic media, and the photograph of Nik Aziz and myself was published in the local press - but Keng Yaik is trying to create the impression that he had an espionage scoop as if the dinner  was a secret gathering requiring spies to take surreptitious photographs of the event.  

Keng Yaik’s attempt to invest the event with sinister implications, together with his repetition of the lie 12 years ago accusing DAP Secretary-General Kerk Kim Hock of having gone to Jakarta for a secret meeting with PAS leaders when Kerk had never visited Indonesia, is the type of dirty politics and  election campaign the DAP and Ketari voters must contend with in the by-election.  

The Ketari by-election will be a test as to whether the Lim Keng Yaik politics of lies and falsehoods has still a “market” in Malaysia and  whether the voters of Malaysia are sophisticated enough to see through such lies and falsehoods.  

The DAP has left the Barisan Alternative over our differences with PAS over the Islamic state issue, as the DAP has always been consistent in our commitment for a democratic, secular and multi-religious Malaysia.  

This is very different from Gerakan, which could overnight abandon its attack on Islamic state concept to give  support when  Mahathir declared that Malaysia had always been an Islamic state.  

The question is whether despite  differences over an Islamic state between DAP and PAS , there is room for DAP and the Barisan Alternative to co-operate on areas of common agreement - on justice, freedom, democracy and good governance, and in particular to break the unbroken political hegemony of the Barisan Nasional which has been such a bane to Malaysian democracy and nation-building.  

DAP’s chances in the Ketari by-election would be very different if it is held after the 911 events.  At stake in the Ketari by-election, however, is not just the future of DAP but the future of Malaysian democracy, human rights and nation-building in the post-911 scenario.  

It will be a national tragedy if the Ketari by-election result is used to demonstrate a new post-911 political trend in Malaysia, where the Barisan Nasional has not only recovered political support but has a new  “terror” card to give it new immunity to  justify past as well as new  unfair, unjust and undemocratic policies.  

(23/3/2002)