JONSON CHONG

When I was a law student at the University of New South Wales, my contracts law lecturer used to say, “there are contracts, and there are contracts.”

What did he mean? Of course, there are contracts and contracts. That’s why we are studying contracts law, right?

Well, basically, he was saying that there all sorts of contracts and, most importantly, some are binding and enforceable whilst others are not.

The idea to have a direct election of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (KEADILAN) leaders through secret ballots both at the division as well as at the national level was motivated, I believe, by several factors.

Firstly, in 2008, the party had just won an unprecedented number of seats in parliament as well as many state assembly seats throughout the peninsular. Not only that, KEADILAN was leading the Pakatan Rakyat state government of Selangor, and our president was then the opposition leader of Malaysia.

Thus, KEADILAN was in the limelight and we needed to strengthen the party to lead the charge towards Putrajaya. The simple logic was that we needed “accelerated evolution” to put new and dynamic leaders in charge of divisions to strengthen grassroots machinery and also at the national level to strengthen the top leadership.

Second, we needed to position KEADILAN as the leading political party that is the most democratic, most progressive and, perhaps, most daring to take on the Umno-BN juggernaut.

Hence, we set ourselves apart by declaring ourselves the first Malaysian political party to institute democratic reforms that will empower all members to elect their own leaders directly and secretly (thus allowing ordinary members to vote without fear).

Third, KEADILAN hastily recruited members to make itself a big contender in the Malaysian political arena. The simplistic logic was that more members will mean we are a better or stronger organisation. Thus, the bigger we are, the better we are able to fight Umno and BN.

Well, unfortunately, organisational development does not quite work like that. Organisations are made of people. And organisations are only as good as the people that they have. They have corrupt people in Umno, MCA and MIC, hence the corrupt practices of their leaders. They have racist people in Perkasa and KKK, hence the racist sentiments and racist mobs.
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Ever since the prime minister announced the 2011 budget last week, we have heard all sorts of objections about the various mega projects to be rolled out next year. Everyone’s part of the chorus line: opposition politicians, political analysts, economists, bloggers, tweeters and even kopitiam political pundits.

My first reaction to the 100-storey skyscraper idea—the name of which is so unimaginative that I can’t even remember it—was a question, “What for?!” Then all the funny and not-so-funny answers came fast and furious:

“To give Dr M a long finger.” (But remember that the latter gave two to the world).
“To line Rosmah’s relatives’ pockets so that they can bury her in style.”
“To fill Najib’s war chest so that he can buy all the non-postal votes in Pekan.”
“We need a tall building to ensure that all the crooked politicians die when we push them out the window.”

After laughing for a while, then I realised that our Apco-advised prime minister announced other mega projects too. In the same budget, he announced the massive MRT project which will cost us a staggering amount of money.

Then, I also realised that the new tower and the MRT projects are not the only mega projects that Malaysia is undertaking. Even before the budget was announced, the government has already taken steps on at least two other mega projects: the massive redevelopment of Kampung Baru as well as the redevelopment of the Sungei Besi military airport. Mind you, the prime minister have also been mooting the idea of a nuclear power plant, which I am sure will come with a huge price tag as well.
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Dear Malaysian Brother,

I think we need to talk. There is something we haven’t really spoke about in public before, though it’s probably very often thought out loud in private.

Do you notice that so many of our brothers are talking so loudly about all this race supremacy thing but we have never publicly discussed the reason or reasons why they feel that way about things; i.e. the seemingly uncontrollable urge to be supreme.

No, Brother, I am not trying to be funny or seditious. I’m just trying to lighten the burden of our future generations.

And I’m not trying to start a riot either. What I am trying to start is a dialogue with some of our Malaysian Brothers who seem to have difficulty understanding the principle of equality and the belief that all men are born free and equal.

I know that some will say that we cannot talk about this because it is very sensitive. Brother, I am telling you that we need to have a dialogue precisely because it is sensitive. Our whole nation is suffering because we have been skirting this issue. It is holding all of us back. Would you rather leave it to the politicians to resolve this issue?
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