www.wansaiful.com

This historic event should have received more media coverage.

Istiadat Pertabalan Agung Yang Ke-13

…to track the owner of the email address: muhasabah2005@yahoo.com.my

Anybody want to gain some experience working during an election, email me at wansaiful@gmail.com.

I may have some tasks available on polling day.

(UPDATE 1 MAY 2007: To be fair to MZuhdi, I think it is best if we wait until he finishes his writing before commenting. I am therefore disabling comments here but I am collecting his writings on a new page - click on CRITIQUE above)

I have just found the blog mzuhdi.blogspot.com. I was searching because he wrote two sober commentaries (so far) about some articles on Malaysia Think Tank London’s website.

It is refreshing to see someone commenting in a civilised way. There are people out there who just simply cannot write but still want to, subsequently ending up making a fool out of themselves. This is not one of those people.

Of course, he is wrong… But at least he tried

Although I like his attempt, especially in his second entry, I still do not see what is it that he refers to as “Islamic system”. This is the most obvious problem with many Islamists. The label “Islam” is very important to them and anything without that label will be seen as un-Islamic.

For example, if you say that Islam advocates personal responsibility, small state, rule of law and property rights, they would almost immediately agree. But when you say classical liberals advocate personal responsibility, small state, rule of law and property rights, they would almost immediately say “Classical liberalism? Surely that is not Islamic”.

Another problem that I have is, who gives anybody the right to claim that his / her opinion is “pandangan ISLAM terhadap” a particular issue? There are so many people out there claiming to present “Islamic” opinions. There are people out there who put on a small goatee, a long jubah and a thick serban in order to portray an image of trustworthiness, but is actually among the most corrupt people. I wrote about this here and here. I wonder how many people are actually tidying up their own houses first?

At the end of the day, free market frees people. Anything otherwise is a breach of what God granted to His creation. It is not just simply about economics. It is about morality.

I wrote the article below back in February 2005.

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Reading this article from the Guardian, I am reminded of what happened to Malaysia in the last general election. Perhaps IDS has learnt the lesson from Malaysian opposition’s experience…

After the Anwar debacle in 1998, the Alternative Front went all out to hunt Tun Mahathir’s head. They created names for him - Mahafiraun, Mahazalim, etc etc. They exposed his long list of corruption. They exposed who’ who of Tun Mahathir’s cronies. They did everything they could they defame Tun Mahathir.

Tun Mahathir then stepped down and handed over the Prime Ministership to Pak Lah. Mahathir stepped down with a bruise. His image was damaged. People do not trust him as much. And when he cried on stage, people laughed at him (apart from Rafidah Aziz who was clearly heard saying “Kenapa ni? Don’t do this?”)

Mahathir’s departure created a big headache for the opposition. Now that the hunted head is no more, what should the opposition do? They can no longer continue the hunt and the character assassination as the target no longer exist. What’s worse, the subsequent PM is squeaky clean. He was even dubbed as “Mr Clean”!!!

The outcome? The opposition lost massively in the 2004 general election. That was the result when political fights were conducted on the basis of personalities rather than issues. When you fight on the basis of personalities (e.g.: Mahathir is corrupt or Blair is no longer trustworthy), you will land yourself into trouble when the issue is seen as no longer relevant. When you hunt for Mahathir’s head, you suddenly get Pak Lah in his place. You don’t get a change of party, you only get a change of personality from the same pile of rubbish.

The opposition did not gain anything, they lose out. When you hunt for Blair’s head, you will only get Brown in No 10. The opposition will not gain anything.

But the Malaysian opposition tried to fight on. Once again, they tried to fight Pak Lah on the basis of personality, similar to what they did with Mahathir. They tried to expose Pak Lah’s shortcomings. They challenged Pak Lah about the Anwar saga. They declared that Pak Lah is not as clean as imagined. Pak Lah’s hands are dirty too because he did not free Anwar. What happened next? Anwar was released. And once again, the opposition lose out. Their call was answered and Anwar is now a free man. On the other hand, Pak Lah’s image was boosted when he bravely answered the opposition’s call.

What next? Will the opposition continue to fight on the basis of personalities? Will they learn from past experience?

Now that BN is winning the personality fight, BN is creating a personality war of their own. They created an “image” for Dato Seri Haji Abdul Hadi, PAS President. They created an” image” for PAS Deputy President, Ustaz Hasan Shukri. And PAS has to fight this personality-war like never before. For the last 20-odd years, PAS has been on the offensive in this personality war. All the times, Mahathir was there to be attacked. But this is no more. The rules of the game has changed and PAS has less issues to stay on the offensive.

Does PAS have enough experience to now be on the defensive? Is PAS ready to play by UMNO’s rules?

If PAS falls for the game, and unwittingly play the personality war by BN’s rules, I fear that at the end, it is PAS that will lose out. BN has all the strengths to fight the personality war. They have the money, the media is on their side, and they blatantly abuse the government machinery. PAS cannot win this war for PAS has no weapons. PAS doesn’t even have enough issues to raise.

PAS was established on the basis of an ideology. It is not merely a political party, but it is an Islamic movement exploiting the benefits of democracy. Islamic political system is PAS’ unique selling point (USP). This is the factor that differentiates PAS. If PAS were to forget this, BN will surely benefit.

But, looking at current trends, there is shift towards the middle ground. The middle ground in this case is what many would call “moderate” Islam. I personally do not know what “moderate” Islam is. As far as I am concerned, Islam is already moderate. Islam is the middle-way. How can you make something that already moderate more moderate? Islam, practised in its totality, is the moderate way.

But, for the benefit of the argument, let us assume that “moderate” Islam exists.

UMNO now wants to be seen Islamic. They created the terms Islam Hadhari. This rubbish is, unfortunately, believed by a vast portion of people in Malaysia.

PAS, not wanting to be left out, wants to be seen as moderate too. But while UMNO moves to the middle by becoming more Islamic and leaving their ‘assabiyyah origin, PAS comes to the middle by “softening” their stance on the Islamic state issue. Remember the Hotelling model?

As both parties move more and more towards the same ground, they can be seen calling for the same agenda. PAS calls for an end of corruption. So does UMNO. PAS calls for the implementation of Islamic syariah. UMNO says they are already doing that and Malaysia is declared as an Islamic country. UMNO wants to get closer to youths. PAS Youth and Muslimat wings declared that they are doing that too. And many more.

(If you look at the British scenario, Hotelling’s model becomes more apparent. Can anyone tell what is the actual different between Conservatives and Labour? )

What PAS has to remember is, as they move more and more towards the middle, some supporters will feel left out.

Look back at Hotelling’s beach. If vendor C (Henry) moves too far towards the middle, some of his customers at position C will feel that the new location is too far for them. They will leave Henry. They will simply search for a new, nearby vendor. Or they may even create a new shop to replace Henry’s. This is Hotelling’s “revenge”.

The same has happened to PAS. When PAS tried moving to middle ground and co-operated with Semangat 46, some of PAS’ supporters left and started a new party called Al-Islah. For these people, PAS shifted too far and they can no longer follow the drift.

Now, when certain quarters in PAS wants to bring PAS even closer to the middle ground - moderate Islam - another group started voicing out their dissatisfaction. This group is labelled as the “older generation” by certain media. Some even went as far as calling them the ulama’s in PAS (I do not agree with both terminologies but let us not argue about terminologies here).

And, surprise surprise, BN is exploiting this to the max. They highlight the differences everywhere and every time. PAS’ image is severely dented. Where does it now stand in terms of the Islamic state? Was it a mistake to release the Islamic state document without careful preparations? Since both are moving towards the same, middle direction, is UMNO now an “Islamic party” too? Why should anyone vote for PAS, now that Mahathir - who was the focus of PAS attacks for the last 20 odd years - is no longer in power? How should PAS respond when the non-Muslims say that a vote for any opposition candidate is a vote for a Taliban-style rule? Add this to the debacle of Kohilal and Kosis - which is being played by BN as an analogy of how PAS would manage Malaysia’s economy - PAS has a very difficult war to fight.

There is a big dilemma. Going back to Hotelling’s model, if PAS were to stay at the same place, they will fail to garner votes from those in the middle. And they will not be able to steal votes from UMNO supporters with Islamic inclinations.

Move too far to the middle, and they risk losing hard-core supporters. What’s worse, if the shift to the middle is too abrupt, PAS would then enter a new ground in which they have to fight UMNO on the basis of “who is more moderate”, not “who is more Islamic”. Is PAS ready to play according to this new rule? Is PAS ready to face Hotelling’s revenge?

It is now official! Click here and scroll to page 6.

There are way too many parties / groupings running in my ward. This will almost certainly split the votes.

It is great to know that our idea has been picked up by Malaysian parliamentarians.

Becoming a local politician is a big responsibility.Don;t do it unless you are committed. Local politics do not bring with it the ‘fame’ associated with becoming a national politician. Local politicians are usually people who really want to do something for their local community. In Luton, the pay is ridiculously low. The Council Leader is paid much less than what I can earn from other sources. A councillor without a cabinet post gets even less.

To make sure prospective councillors know what they are getting themselves into, the Council holds two briefing sessions. I attended one on Thursday 22 March. People from the Council’s Local Democray team were there, as well as the Head of Legal Services. They gave a no-nonsense ‘expose’ on what it would be like to be a councillor, which I found very useful.

The main message was, if you cannot fulfil the responsibility, then don’t do it. People vote for you because they want you to serve them. They don’t vote for you to enable you topursue your personal career ambitions. They want you to deliver.

Another message was, you cannot change the world so do not make empty promises. This is something that resonates well with me. As a team, we conciously decided to not make promises. We are very realistic. As candidates, there is not much we can do. But, if elected, we will do our best to address the concerns people have raised. Of course there will things that we cannot do. Many things will be beyond our sphere of influence. We are always clear on that, and we are not afraid to say “I am so sorry but even if you vote for me, we cannot do XYZ”. However, we are also clear that we WILL do better than the current Labour councillors. We have been working hard to help people in the area since last year and we will continue to do so.

While listening to the presentations, I wondered whether similar briefings happen in Malaysia. The Council staff here do not show political bias. Can civil servants in Malaysia be the same?

We canvass almost every weekend since mid-last year. I just got back from canvassing today. I think this is the most interesting bit in our campaign. Canvassing allows me to meet the electorates in my area. I get the chance to find out what their concerns are, and tell people what I believe in. On the main people are very receptive. Many feel disillusioned by politics, and mainly that is because of Labour. Labour promised the world but have not delivered. The repercussion of Labour failures is people saying they have had enough of politics and will not vote.

I attended A Comedy Evening with Azhar Usman at the City Circle this evening. There was a Q&A and I asked Azhar why his tour is called “The Official Muslim Comedy Tour“. Why not just call it a comedy tour and go mainstream?

His gave an excellent answer.

He said it is a marketing strategy - it is important to develop a niche market and solidify it first before making a cross-over to the bigger mainstream market. That led me to think if I need to identify a niche market for the think tank, and if so who or where should it be.