After every national election and every by-election, we blame voters for being duped by cybertroopers who spin and churn fake news.
Action is called to penalise the cyber-troopers who viral fake news.
Voters are also blamed for playing the ethnic and religious cards.
Malay-based political parties use these three keywords to gain the attention of Malay voters – Malay, religion and king.
We assume the other ethnic groups do not mobilise their primordial preference.
Missing in our analysis is what has brought the May 9 government change.
We forget that the biggest common dominator of that day was the demand for ‘an integrity governance and development deliveries to meet the welfare needs of the society’.
Chinese, Indian, Kadazandusun, Bajau, Iban, Malay voters put their ethnic differences aside to ensure an end to a corrupt, kleptocratic government.
Obviously, the results of the last two by-elections of Cameron Highland and Semenyih are a clear voice from the grassroots that the changing of government from BN to PH is not in their welfare and personal interests.
Slogans of the present day government of ‘Reforming governance and development for societal wellbeing’, ‘Mercy to the worlds’, ‘culture of kindness’ may not be sufficient to retain their votes if costs of daily needs and living are not managed and political stability secured.
Economic growth must be redistributed. The rich must be taxed progressively higher in relative to the bottom 40. So too SST for daily goods and services should be reviewed.
Failure to manage reformation of the governance in line with the Constitution and compounded by development failures, would lead to the mobilisation of ethnic and religious divides that would split and drift our diverse society apart.
In a post-colonial society of Malaysia, governance and development that take cognisance of the Constitution and history are fundamental to political stability and progress of the nation.
Economic success is conditioned by our ability to forge a united Malaysian ethos among our diverse population.
As Malaysia is a part of the capitalist world and spurned by the digital platform, in which the rich is getting richer and the gap between the rich and the poor countries are getting bigger, domestic intervention is not enough.
Our government should be involved collectively with other countries at the regional and the global levels to push for a global action to managing social inequalities to sustain development and ensure global peace.
Leaders should shun political rhetoric in getting votes but to study the needs of the society, manage their welfare and understand the form of the nation in order to manage it peacefully.
Prof Dr Mansor Mohd Noor is a Principal Fellow of Institute of Ethnic Studies (Kita), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
