WHERE DOES THE MALAYSIAN LEFT COME FROM?

…AND HOW IT CAN BE SHATTERED AND BROKEN AND STOP CREATING NEW LEFTISTS OF THE FUTURE.

By Mansor Puteh.

Where did the Malaysian Left come from? They cannot come from anywhere. They are everywhere, but mostly from the Malaysian Right.

Some of them are from the Chinese villages and other tight-knit Chinese and Indian communities that were created by the British colonialists who brought them to the country in the first place, who also took with them their peculiar ideals that they could not shake off despite having been here for a few generations.

They are unlike their brethren in America and England, for instance, who had no choice but to do that, since their numbers there are small.

Even Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar cannot tolerate chauvinisms that were imported from China and India.

In fact, these countries do not allow them to speak in their own languages or to have their vernacular names.

And because their adopted counties were insistent, the Chinese and Indians could not do much, but to comply. They are not given an inch of land or a single cent to build any house of worship or school that teaches in their mother tongue.

In fact, there are also no political parties established to promote the well-being of their own community.

And where did the United Malay National Organization or Umno, Malaysian-Chinese Association or MCA and Malaysian-Indian Congress or MIC come from?

They came from the desire of Malaysians or Malayans then, to aspire for independence for the country known then as Tanah Melayu.

And where did the Democratic Action Party or DAP, Parti Islam SeMalaysia or PAS and Parti KeAdilan Rakyat or PKR come from?

These two opposition parties came from the need for them to criticize Umno, MCA and MIC; they were not created because of any higher ideals.

The history of the DAP especially is unique in that it is an offshoot from the Parti Tindakan Rakyat or People’s Action Party or PAP based then in Singapore.

PAS arose from a group of disgruntled Melayu who felt that they were better off being ‘more Islamic’ than those in Umno.

While the history of PKR is even more unique in that it was formed not because of any real political ideals, but because of frustration of a few who were sacked from Umno and Barisan Nasional, and especially its founder, Anwar Ibrahim who was deputy prime minister and was sacked by prime minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammed.

In the end, Pakatan Rakyat, the loose coalition of parties comprising of the DAP, PAS and PKR had to gang up simply because they desired to become a bigger voice to condemn Umno and Barisan.

They are not there to become the real opposition parties of Malaysia.

And because of their incessant promotion of their different ideals, they are able to attract some people of like minds to join them, as staunch supporters and also leaders at the divisional and national levels. 

Malaysia does not enjoy and cannot enjoy a two-party political system. And Malaysian cannot create its own opposition, other than critics of the government that many Malaysians continue to see as the government that had freed itself from British colonialism.  

Malaysia could have a one-party system if the right systems are put in place, which discount whatever leftist leaning that some people may have, which in the process creates what is termed as The Malaysian Left.

This cannot be done even if the Right creates its on Left wing, who may be termed to be the internal critics of the Right.

There is a hodge-podge of people who prefer to go to the Left, when the Right offers them everything.

What seems to be the reason why there are such Left-leaning individuals in Malaysia today?

Who are they? Where do they come from? Why they prefer to be on the Left, considering how many of them were indeed from the Right at one time?

Malaysian Political Left, may not necessary be a political issue, but a psychological one.

But where are the psychologists in Malaysia who can say this?

It is also a sociological issue.

But where are the sociologists who can say this too?

There are none of them, so in the end, all political matters are seen through the very eyes of the same politics whose problems the country embraces as its own.

So now the Malaysian Right and Malaysian Left have become entrenched.

Can the Malaysian Left be broken?

They can be broken by demography. They can also be shattered by psychology. And they ca also be broken into pieces by sociology, although they may not be so by cultural and linguistic or religious means.

Malaysian Left was indeed created by the flaws of the Malaysian Right, which also created the Middle Malaysia or Fence-sitters who do not know which way they want to go, to the Right or to the Left.

They represent a sizeable group of people who think they know better so they are willing to wait till polling day before they decide if they want to side with the Right or the Left.

But the sad truth is that the Malaysian Left comprises mostly of those who were from the Right, who had fallen favor with it so they made their way to the Left by embracing the very people who they conveniently criticized before.

Now they praise them for exactly the opposite reasons why they did not like them before.

Some political analysts in Malaysia say that those who go to the Left are mostly those who are frustrated and angry.

Yet, what these political analysts do not seem to know or realize that the Malaysian Left are people who grew up in enclosed environments.

Their parents were on the Left, so they joined them to continue on with their trek.

Of course, in Malaysia, there are ways to destabilize the Malaysian Left, that can happen by natural and also unnatural means, which if can happen will help to create a better environment where people of diverse racial backgrounds can support each other better to develop the industries so that the immigrant populations do not continue to think they are alien to the land that cause them to be self-marginalized and living in a self-apartheid environment for ever.