Here’s to Hoping and Blogging

It has been more than a week since the 12th Malaysian General Election. Reality has finally sunk in: that it’s possible for the opposition to amount to more than a few lone voices in Parliament.

I’m actually quite apolitical. I don’t believe one side to be 100% right and the other side to be 100% wrong. However the system being as it is, it’s either one or the other. I read somewhere that democracy is not the best system but merely the least worst alternative compared to communism, socialism, despotism, etc. There is no middle road; the voter can’t choose the best of party A and the best of party B. Another huge drawback is the confrontational nature of the system, such that the other side is almost always demonized. The result is that people of the same country, race and religion end up hating each other. I wish there were a more consultative approach in which the most optimal solutions to problems could be worked out together.

But then, the system is the system, so we work within it the best we can.

For me the biggest winner of this election isn’t this party or that party but hope. I didn’t vote in 2004 and this year my wife had to talk me into it. I felt it was no use; BN would win anyway. But now I bet voters feel much more empowered. They could hope that their “X” on a piece of paper would bring change.

It’s not that I’m against BN per se. What I’m against is unchecked power. History gives us ample evidence that power shouldn’t be concentrated in anybody’s hands. That being the case, no party or coalition deserves more than 2/3 majority in Parliament. Democracy, without real check and balance, would just be legalized autocracy.

Another big winner to emerge from this election is the so-called socio-political blog. I notice that most of these blogs started around 2005/2006 and almost all of them use Blogspot. That was when Blogspot revolutionalized blogging with its free and easy-to-use blogging engine. In one stroke it enabled anyone with an Internet connection to be an independent journalist/commentator and indeed a number of ex-journalists became famous bloggers. Being beholden to no one, bloggers could publish just about anything at the click of a mouse. This would of course make it easy for them to be dismissed as rumour-mongers, but it is their very independence that gives them credibility. Ironically we have Tun Dr. Mahathir to thank for the freedom that bloggers in Malaysia enjoy; for his brainchild, the MSC, to become a success, he had to ensure from the outset that there would be no censorship of the Internet.

In the end, it’s impossible to measure exactly how much these blogs influenced the results of the recent election. But one thing is for sure: Internet penetration - and blogging - will only increase, and soon will come the day when politicians who aren’t mentioned in blogs might as well not exist.

18 March 2008 | Politics | Comments